Hockey teams set for PIHL playoffsFour Butler County hockey teams will begin play in the PIHL Penguins Cup playoffs beginning next week.In Class AAA play March 9, No. 8 seed Butler will take on No. 1 seed Central Catholic at 9 p.m. at the Alpha Ice Complex and No. 5 seed Seneca Valley faces No. 4 seed Cathedral Prep at 8:30 p.m. at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.In Class AA, No. 10 seed Mars faces No. 7 seed Greater Latrobe at 7:15 p.m. Monday at Kirk Nevin Arena.In Class A, No. 11 seed Freeport plays No. 6 seed Thomas Jefferson at 7:15 p.m. Monday at Rostraver Ice Garden.

SRU pitcher Pantuso gets PSAC honorsSLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University junior Alex Pantuso has been named PSAC West Pitcher of the Week.Pantuso struck out seven in five hitless and scoreless innings during SRU's season-opening 9-4 win over East Stroudsburg in Dinwiddie, Va.3 SRU athletes head to nationalsThe Slippery Rock University track and field team will send three members to the NCAA Division II National Championships to be held March 9-11 in Birmingham, Ala.Slippery Rock High graduate Ryan Thompson will compete in the mile. His time of 4 minutes, 5.72 seconds is the fastest of any male in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference history indoors and he's seeded 12th in a field of 16.Thompson, a senior in his final year of eligibility, will be making his first career appearance at a national championship.Courtney McQuaide and Madeline Marshall will also compete.McQuaide won the PSAC title in the pole vault at 3.77 meters, which was matched by Marshall.Butler graduate Kennedy Evans was just two one-hundredths of a second off the final accepted entry in the 600-meter hurdles.

Jets parting ways with corner RevisNEW YORK — The New York Jets are moving on from one of the best players in their franchise’s history.The team informed star cornerback Darrelle Revis they are releasing him, ending his second tenure with the Jets — a two-year run that was marked by a stunning slip in play because of injuries and age.Revis, 31, was scheduled to make $15 million, including a $2 million roster bonus, next season.

NFL considering full-time refereesINDIANAPOLIS — The NFL is considering making referees full-time employees and centralizing replay review at its New York headquarters as it aims for more consistent, shorter games.Those were the major topics of discussion when the league’s competition committee met in advance of the league’s annual scouting combine.

Russian hockey star Petrov dead at 69MOSCOW — Vladimir Petrov, a two-time Olympic hockey champion who was on the Soviet Union team that lost to the United States at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, died. He was 69.Petrov played alongside Boris Mikhailov and Valery Kharlamov on an offensive line considered one of the best in hockey history.