Hot On Ice
WARRENDALE — Seneca Valley's hockey team took advantage of one penalty, then killed another to remain undefeated Monday night.
Sophomore forward Andrew Davis broke a 3-3 tie with a power-play goal with 3:57 left in a game against Butler.
The Raiders then withstood the Golden Tornado's late 6-on-4 advantage to tally a 4-3 victory at Baierl Ice Complex.
SV's Chris Belt was whistled for tripping, setting Butler up on a power-play with 1:48 remaining. The Tornado then added an extra skater when goalie Connor Strobel was pulled with 1:05 left.
“At that point, we just packed it in and tried to jump on every loose puck,” said Seneca Valley coach Anthony Raco said. “We didn't want to just control the puck, we wanted to get it out of there.”
C.J. Phillips cleared the puck with 30 seconds left, costing Butler valuable time. The Tornado managed one final push, with Raiders' goalie Cole Hoffman making a save, his 17th of the night, on a wrist shot from Blake Sinicki. Davis had one final clear with 10 seconds left to seal the win.
Butler was on the verge of killing its final penalty as the Golden Tornado did not allow a shot on Strobel until Davis' game-winner with just three seconds left in the power-play.
“Butler was shifting and taking away our passing lanes,” said Raco. “We tried to make more cross-ice passes to get (Strobel) moving side to side.
Kowin Belsterling made a good one from just inside the blue line to Davis, who let his shot go from just outside the left circle.
“They had a screen on our goalie and made a nice pass on the weak side,” said Butler coach Mavrik Goepfert.
The effort spoiled a fine offensive performance by Butler, which received second-period goals from Bennett Thrash and Aidan Potochny that erased a 2-0 deficit.
Clayton Blucher put the Raiders (5-0) back on top with a goal at 10:07 of the second period. The game was tied for the final time when the Tornado's Brody Simko wristed a shot past Hoffman at 7:53 of the same period.
But the Tornado managed to challenge Hoffman just three times in the third period prior to their late power-play.
“Overall, I was happy with our scoring chances tonight, though I think we could have capitalized on a few more,” said Goepfert.
Ryan Russell and Austin Albert staked the Raiders to their early lead with goals just one minute, seven seconds apart early in the first period.
“We were the faster team tonight,” said Davis. “We worked hard on the boards and found guys in the slot.”
Strobel made 26 saves in the loss, which kept Butler from a 3-game winning streak. The Tornado (2-6) dropped their first five games of the season before earning a pair of 2-1 wins over North Allegheny and Pine-Richland.
“We have a young team and it took us a while to adjust to the speed,” said Goepfert. “They take the top eight to the playoffs and that's our goal. Our seniors want it.”
Seneca Valley won the Penguins Cup Class 3A title in 2017 before falling to 6-13 last year.
“We made the playoffs, but lost in the first round,” said Raco. “We didn't get on enough pucks last year and tried to build a team with more grit, but also a lot of speed this season.”
“There's just a lot of energy on this team,” added Davis. “Whether it's in the locker room or even in practice, a lot of energy.”
Seneca Valley hosts Canon-McMillan next Monday.
Butler does not play again until hosting Mt. Lebanon Nov. 18.
