Painful penalties
WARRENDALE — The Seneca Valley hockey team tried not to let earlier mistakes bog it down in the third period against North Allegheny Tuesday.
It almost worked.
The Raiders rallied for two goals in a 29-second span midway through the final period, but the Tigers held on a for a 4-3 PIHL Class AAA victory at BladeRunners.
North Allegheny tallied three consecutive goals in the second period, the latter two on the power play — which included an unsportsmanlike penalty on Raiders coach Anthony Raco.
The Tigers netted the two power-play goals in the final 2:23 of the period to take the 4-1 advantage.
“In the third period, we needed to focus and not get caught up in the officiating,” Raco said. “We needed to worry about things we can control. We came out early and did some things.
“We pulled to one goal but I took a stupid penalty,” Raco added.
Things looked bleak for the Raiders (12-5-1) until Patrick Stough took a pass from Spencer Schutte and scored past Tigers goalie Bradford Thornburgh on a power-play chance of their own with 9:36 remaining.
Andrew Gagnon made it a one-goal game 29 seconds later when he scored with an assist from Chris Marziotto with 9:07 to play.
The Tigers needed to temper the Raiders' newfound enthusiasm, which they were able to accomplish.
“I think we needed a real good shift out there,” Tigers coach James Black said. “and Connor Cash's line really did a nice job and slowed the momentum.”
The teams had exchanged goals — NA's Matt Fantaski opened the scoring with a goal with 4:22 left in the first period and Luke Reed countered with one with 16:03 left in the second period — before the Tigers began to take control of the second period.
Harry Kramer scored a short-handed goal just 2:09 after Reed's goal to give the Tigers (14-3-2) the lead for good.
With a two-minute penalty on Lucas Roman for interference, coupled with the bench penalty, the Tigers enjoyed a two-man advantage for 1:02. It took Kramer just 16 seconds to cash in then Cody Black made it a three-goal game when he scored on a power play against Raiders goalie Tanner Pfeffer with just seven seconds left in the period.
Pfeffer finished with 34 saves while Thornburgh had 22.
(NA) runs their power play very well,” Raco said. “They work the backside and bring the weakside defender down. They run a good system and they were real successful tonight.”
Much like the Seneca Valley-North Allegheny game, the same rang true for the Planets, who let penalties early in the contest lead to their undoing.Three goals by the Quakers in the second period gave the unbeaten squad all the breathing room they needed.The Planets were able to kill a head contact penalty, but a five-minute kneeing penalty by Max Master, coupled with a 10-minute game misconduct and unsportsmanlike penalty for the bench seven seconds after, put the team in a tough spot.Still, Ryan Dickson's power-play goal with 8:33 left in the first period was the only one the Planets surrendered in the frame.“We needed to do a better job of controlling the players,” Mars coach Steve Meyers said. “We got frazzled out there.”The play of Mars goalie Christian Knapp kept the game close as the senior made 51 saves while Quaker Valley netminder Parker Sherry was credited with 22.“Our defense doesn't give up a lot of shots or a lot of opportunities,” Quaker Valley coach Kevin Quinn said. “And, No. 2, they generate offense. They get the puck up and get it headed toward the goal.”That's shown all season as the Quakers (18-0) have outscored their opponents 149-14.In that second period, Ryan Lottes, Clayton Bouchard and Dickson each scored with Dickson and Lottes each picking up two assists, giving Lottes three on the night.Meyers knows if the Planets are going to make a run at the Penguins Cup again this year, penalties are something they'll have to curtail.“If our goalie wasn't as good tonight, they would have beaten us by a lot more,” Meyers said.“A call here, a call there makes a difference and we have to be able to handle adversity a little.”
