PITTSBURGH — The Mars hockey team continually sent pucks in the right direction Tuesday evening at Mellon Arena.

Seven of them found their destination — the Bishop McCort net — as the Planets rolled to a 7-3 PIHL Class A semifinal victory.

Mars (22-2) won its ninth straight game and will defend its Penguins Cup title against Serra Catholic at 5 p.m. Saturday at Mellon Arena.

"I was surprised we got that many past him," Mars coach Steve Meyers said of Bishop McCort goaltender Jim Stenger. "But things went our way tonight and we'll take it."

Mars defeated the Crushers (16-7-1) 2-1 in their regular-season meeting Dec. 10.

On Tuesday, the Planets outshot Bishop McCort 38-21 and scored on the first shot of the game when Mike Mazzotta recorded his 16th goal of the year on a wrist shot that trickled through Stenger's pads 42 seconds into the contest.

"Jimmy makes that save 99 percent of the time," Crushers coach Kevin Cooper said about Stenger, who entered Tuesday with a 2.62 goals against average. "That one got through him and gave him the wrong mindset for this game. He seemed to struggle the whole night."

The biggest goal of the game also was the strangest.

Bishop McCort's Dane Domonkos scored 43 seconds into the second period to pull his team within 3-2. Less than two minutes later, the Planets' C.J. Thibault snapped off a seemingly harmless wrist shot from the right point.

The shot was headed well wide of the net when it deflected off the leg of a Bishop McCort defender and past a startled Stenger for a 4-2 Mars lead.

"You never know what might happen when you flick the puck toward the goal," Thibault said. "That's all I was doing there.

"Our game plan was to throw pucks toward the net and crash the net. We wanted to keep the pressure on them," he added.

Mars scored three more goals in the period — one by Tyler Whiteford and a pair by Elliot Tisdale — to take a 7-3 lead into the third period.

"We had them where we wanted when it was 3-2," Cooper said. "We were getting some good scoring chances and building momentum. That (Thibault) shot was headed six feet wide of the net. You make your own breaks in hockey, but they got a lot of bounces tonight.

"Even though we were outshot, I thought we had the better chances. One of their kids had a hat trick, but the difference tonight was (Mars goalie) Tyler Stepke.

"He stopped a couple of breakaways, robbed us from in close. ... This easily could have been a 7-6 game," Cooper added.

Tisdale had the hat trick for Mars, his second consecutive three-goal game in the playoffs. He has a team-leading 29 goals on the season.

"Score goals in the regular season, score goals in the postseason," Meyers said. "He hasn't slowed down at all. That's how it ought to be."

Tisdale said Mazzotta's opening goal was the biggest.

"Scoring early like that gets those butterflies out of the stomach right away," the sophomore forward said. "It made us feel like it was going to be our night."

After each of Bishop McCort's three goals, Mars answered less than three minutes later.

"We never lost our aggressiveness or our confidence," Meyers said.

Mars 7, Bishop McCort 3Bishop McCort 1 2 0 — 3Mars 3 4 0 — 7

First PeriodMars-Mike Mazzotta (Elliot Tisdale, Kevin Leslie) :42; Bishop McCort-Zach Barto PP (Dane Domonkos) 5:10; Mars-Tisdale PP (Mazzotta, Tyler Whiteford) 7:53; Mars-Rusty Miller (C.J. Thibault, Austin Heakins) 8:51Penalties: M-Nick Blaney (tripping) 4:01, BM-Alex Goch (tripping) 7:04

Second PeriodBishop McCort-Domonkos (Kurtis Straw) :43; Mars-Thibault (unassisted) 2:38; Mars-Whiteford (Mazzotta, Tisdale) 6:20; Mars-Tisdale PP (Tyler Stepke) 10:16; Bishop McCort-Domonkos (Straw) 13:41; Mars-Tisdale (Whiteford) 14:19Penalties: M-Miller (interference) 6:51, BM-Straw (holding) 9:04, M-Blake Friday (hooking) 15:00

Third PeriodNo ScoringPenalties: M-Kevin Leslie (hooking) 1:37, BM-Nick Pappas (roughing) 10:57, M-Heakins (hooking) 14:45Shots on goal: Bishop McCort 4-8-9-21, Mars 12-16-10-38Power play opportunities: Bishop McCort 1-for-5, Mars 2-for-3