Mars eyes return to Penguins Cup final
Reloaded and ready to fire.
That's an apt description for the Mars hockey team as the 2008-09 PIHLseason gets under way Monday.
The Planets are coming off a 22-2-1 season that ended with a loss to Quaker Valley in the Penguins Cup Class A championship game at Mellon Arena.
Gone from that squad are 30-goal scorer Mike Heltman, 26-goal scorer Ian Finney, defenseman Sean Roach and standout goaltender Greg Lewis, along with Justin Wingert and Mike Ascoine.
"It's not about losing guys in hockey. It's about how you fill back in,"Mars coach Tim Coleman said.
Mars has plenty of talent returning, including senior defenseman Steve Tracy (8 goals and 28 assists), senior center Jake Robash (26-23), junior left wing Mike Mazzotta (14-26), junior defenseman Brady Sipes (9-8) and 6-foot-4 junior defenseman Tyler Whiteford.
The Planets also have freshman left wing Nick Blaney, whose family moved into the Mars area from Buffalo, N.Y., where Blaney played for the Junior Sabres.
"He's a very talented kid and we're trying him in different roles to see where he fits in,"Coleman said.
Senior goalie Martin Lamneck will replace Lewis.
"Are we going to score 182 goals again?Probably not,"Coleman said. "But we're trying to get back to the Penguins Cup. There can be no other goal."
Previews of other Butler County high school hockey teams follow:
The Raiders are coming off a 15-5-1 season that ended with a 2-1 playoff loss to Bethel Park. They have plenty of talent returning and sport a new coach in Denis Kirstein.SV recently won the 16th annual St. Margaret's Fall Faceoff Tournament, posting wins over Mount Lebanon, Hampton, Fox Chapel, Upper St. Clair and Bethel Park to claim the 16-team event."That was a good way to start our season,"Kirstein said. "Now, we're getting ready for the real thing."Junior Logan Pfeffe was named tournament MVP. He played on SV's top line with Sam Jarrett and Joe Natoli, also juniors.The second line of Tyler Mesisca, Brandon Platt and Erik Larson also is dominated by juniors.One of the Raiders' three seniors, team captain Michael Rohm, is coming off shoulder surgery and won't be available until mid-November. Defensemen Jordan Smith and Dom Sarachine are the others.Ryan Schutte is the goaltender."We've got a full roster at the varsity, junior varsity and freshman levels,"Kirstein said. "We have skilled forwards up front and solid defense. That tournament championship gave us a boost of confidence."We'll get a reality check at some point, too. There will be bumps in the road."
The Yellowjackets finished 14-8-2 last year, losing in the second round of the playoffs.They also lost four starters, including stellar goaltender Tim Zahumensky, but return senior forward John Reichenbaugh, senior defenseman Jeremy Hepler and junior forwards Neil DeCroo and Shane Gallagher.Cody Lee, a freshman goalie from the Butler Valley organization, will be in net."Jeremy will be our anchor on defense and from the point on the power play," sixth-year coach Dave Hepler said. "He's 6-2, 225 pounds and has a tremendous shot."We've added a number of younger kids to the roster. It may take a little while for us to jell, but the talent is here to compete and get back to the playoffs,"Hepler added.The Yellowjackets won the Class APenguins Cup two years ago.
The Knights produced an 8-13-1 record under first-year coach Richard Justice last year after failing to win a game in 2005-06."We only had 11 or 12 players, so everybody played a lot,"Justice said. "We have 16 skaters and a goalie this year, so we'll be improved just because of that."Four seniors leading the Knights are forwards Shane Donnelly and Ajay Perfros, and defensemen R.J. Hughes and Dylan Engles.Other key players include juniors Evan Corse, Neal Donnelly and Eric Egler at forward, Nick Transue on defense and Ryan Naples in goal."Our goal is to improve, but Class A will be tougher this year,"Justice said. "We lost three teams (Beaver, Forest Hills, Conemaugh Valley) to drop to 13 teams, and they're all pretty good."Some of our wins were against the teams no longer in Class A, so we have to step up our game," he added.
The Golden Tornado won't field a varsity team this season because of a lack of players, but Bob Hoehn has returned to coach the junior varsity.Hoehn coached Butler to a 17-9 record and a playoff win in 2003-04 before stepping down."We've got 20 players and an 18-game schedule," Hoehn said. "I'm confident we'll have a varsity team next year. It will be a young varsity team, but we'll be able to compete at that level."The Golden Tornado's top players include freshman forwards Jake Tomasovic and Cody Bachman, as well as sophomore forwards Zach Dunkle, Matt Bartley and Mitch Cunningham.
