Planets just keep rolling
WARRENDALE — Beaver goaltender Ethan Spada barely had time to catch his breath.
He was too busy trying to catch pucks.
Mars fired 16 shots on Spada in the first period alone Tuesday night at Warrendale BladeRunners, with the veteran goalie stopping 14 of them.
"He's one of the best goalies in the league,"Mars coach Tim Coleman said. "I coached him in the PIHL All-Star Game and he was the best goalie on the ice that night."
Spada was the beaten goalie on this night, however, as the Planets scored five goals on their first eight shots in the second period on their way to a 9-0 hockey victory.
The triumph enabled Mars (20-1-1) to close the regular season on a seven-game winning streak. The Planets have scored at least nine goals in each of their last five games.
Tuesday's win also clinched the No. 1 seed for Mars in the upcoming PIHL Class Aplayoffs.
"I've never been a big scoresheet guy,"Coleman said. "I couldn't even tell you who scored tonight. But I can tell you it was pretty spread out."
Only Mike Mazzotta scored more than one goal in the game. He opened the scoring with his 13th goal of the season midway through the first period.
Senior defenseman Sean Roach scored an unassisted goal on a wrist shot from just inside the blue line less than two minutes later. The Planets outshot Beaver (12-9) 16-5 in the first period, but tallied only twice.
"A lot of our games seem to go like this," Roach said. "Once we get a couple of pucks to go in ... a lot of pucks start going in."
<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE39636220.MOV " width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>The Planets had a two-man advantage for 1:03 early in the first period and couldn't score. Their first power play of the second period started the onslaught, however.Beaver's Jon Brauch took a roughing penalty 17 seconds into the second period. Mars cashed in 11 seconds into the power play as Brady Sipe's cross-ice pass found Jake Robash alone by the far side of the net.Robash tapped home his 28th goal of the year and the Planets' lone power play tally of the night.Before the period was five minutes old, Ian Finney, Mazzotta, Derek Sitterly and Mike Gascoine also found the net and the Planets suddenly had a 7-0 lead.The goal differential invoked the mercy rule and a continually running clock, but it couldn't run fast enough for the outmanned Bobcats."We were missing three players tonight for various reasons,"Beaver coach David Stuber said. "But Mars has too much speed and depth for us to handle."They pass the puck well, but that goes hand in hand with their speed. They're just a great team."The Planets' final two goals were scored by Jake Takach and Andrew Santa, the latter on a breakaway two minutes into the third period.Mars had a 36-14 edge in shots on goal, but was just 1-for-6 on the power play, failing to score with a two-man advantage twice.Beaver failed to score on five power play opportunities and managed only two shots on goal during a stretch of seven consecutive minutes with the man advantage in the second period. The Bobcats had a two-man advantage for 1:21 of that time."We have to shore up our power play a little bit,"Mars senior Mike Heltman admitted. "We're going to need it in a close playoff game."Goalie Greg Lewis stopped all 14 shots he faced to record his sixth shutout in 13 games played. He entered the game with a goals-against average of 0.90.Mars has outscored the opposition 182-21, including 61-9 in the past five games.The Planets will receive a first-round bye in the playoffs and won't play again until March 11 or 12."With the momentum we've got going, I'm a little concerned about the layoff,"Coleman said. "But we're going to practice twice a week and we're scrimmaging North Allegheny next week."They're the defending Class AAA state champions and their speed and ability will be a nice test for us."Mars' six seniors, Finney, Gascoine, Heltman, Roach, Takach and Justin Wingert, were honored before the game.
