Butler hockey blanked by Peters Township
MIDDLESEX TWP — The Peters Township hockey team made the most of its opportunities.
Meanwhile Butler was left scratching its collective heads after another lopsided defeat.
The Indians withstood an early flurry by the Golden Tornado and recovered to score a pair of goals in each of the three periods to hand Butler a 6-0 loss at Ice Connection Monday night.
Peters Township (14-3) was coming off a pair of disappointing setbacks to Seneca Valley and Central Catholic.
Against Butler, the Indians scored two goals on their first three shots and cruised.
“I’m real pleased with the way we played tonight,” said Peters Township coach Richard Tingle. “There were some things that we hadn’t been doing that we started doing again, and it paid off.”
One of those things, apparently, was scoring goals. The Indians put the puck in the net just one time in the last two games before their six-goal outburst against the Tornado.
Zach Gielarowski and Brady Cochrane each scored a pair of goals in the first two periods to put Peters Township up 4-0.
Giovanni Carbonara and Will Barnes closed out the scoring for the Indians in the third period.
Cochrane also had three assists for Peters Township.
For Butler (9-6), it was a forgettable night.
The Golden Tornado started off strong, peppering Peters Township goalie Kyle Madore with a dozen quality shots, but none found the net. At one point, Butler led in shots on goal, 12-3.
And was down 2-0.
Madore turned away all 26 shots he faced in the game.
“It seems like that’s been a common theme lately,” said Butler coach Patrick Hammonds.
More disconcerting for the coach was the way his team, which has now lost three straight, responded to adversity.
“I thought we started the game very well; the first 10 minutes were ours without a doubt,” Hammonds said. “But as soon as things don’t go our way as a team, we don’t handle that properly.”
Hammonds doesn’t have a magic answer to that dilemma.
The Golden Tornado have shown flashes of being right up there with the likes of Peters Township, North Allegheny and Bethel Park — the top teams in the Class AAA Division.
Butler beat Bethel Park, tied North Allegheny and played the Indians tough in a 3-1 loss earlier this season.
But the Golden Tornado have been out-scored 11-0 in their last two games and 17-2 during the three-game skid.
“Not to take anything away from Peters Township because they were able to weather a good 10-minute storm from us and got a couple of goals out of it,” Hammonds said. “But for us, we need to be more mentally tough, to be able to ride the wave a little more when it comes to the ups and down inside the game. Obviously, we didn’t do a very good job of that and that’s why the score was the way it was.”
