WARRENDALE — After killing off a late penalty, Seneca Valley's hockey team was seconds away from overtime — and never got there.

Donny Lewis scored on a breakaway with 20 seconds remaining Tuesday night, giving North Allegheny a 3-2 victory in a showdown for the Section 4-AAA title.

The win was the 16th in 17 games for the Tigers (17-3-0), who won their third consecutive section crown and eighth since 1999.

The Raiders (15-4-1) lost for the first time in 10 games and were denied the first section championship in the program's 17-year history.

"This was a tough one, but we have to move on now,"SV coach Mike Schall said. "The regular season is played for playoff positioning. We're still in pretty good shape that way."

Seneca Valley begins PIHLplayoff action next Tuesday. Its opponent, site and game time have not been determined.

The Raiders had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 Tuesday, only to see NAfight back.

"They took it to us in the first period,"Tigers coach Jimmy Black said. "We didn't start this game with a whole lot of jump and (goaltender Max Richards) kept us in it."

Seneca Valley nearly scored a minute into the game when Logan Pfeffer slid a pass to a wide-open Mike Rohm in front of the net, but Rohm fanned on his shot.

Rohm redeemed himself 16 seconds later, taking a pass from Brandon Platt in the same spot and sliding it into the right corner of the net.

The Raiders had two power- play opportunities in the first period, but failed to extend the lead. During the second power play, Joe Sasala fired a shot from center point that hit the goalpost to the right of Richards.

"If that shot goes in, this game may have played out entirely differently,"Schall said.

Black agreed.

"In a well-played game like this, you don't want to fall behind by two goals,"he said.

The Tigers managed only two shots on goal in the opening period.

North Allegheny got even with a power-play goal with 10:09 left in the second period when Raiders goalie Ryan Schutte stopped Joe Snatchko twice from point-blank range, but the second rebound squirted free to the Tigers' Dylan Rohar.

Rohar, NA's leading scorer with 18 goals, tapped the puck into the open net.

The Raiders took a 2-1 lead when Sam Jarrett scored his eighth goal of the season on a wrap-around with 6:46 left in the period.

But NA's Josh Herbert netted his 14th goal of the year, a power-play score, with 2:27 left in the frame to knot the game at two.

North Allegheny was 2-for-5 with the man advantage while the Raiders failed to score on four power-play chances.

Platt went to the box for holding with 2:29 left in regulation, but Seneca Valley killed the penalty.

Seconds later, however, Lewis pulled the puck out of a scrum at the Raiders' blue line, walked in alone on Schutte and scored the game-winner.

The officials met after the goal to determine whether it should count because the net came off its moorings as the puck went in.

"Ithought the net came off before it went in, but I could be wrong,"Schall said. "At least they talked about it."

North Allegheny had a 25-23 edge in shots on goal. The Tigers defeated Seneca Valley 3-1 earlier this season.