PLAYOFFS BEGIN … Even casual hockey fans know that the most exciting playoff season occurs in the NHL. No other sport sees its teams and players push so hard, give so much and make so many sacrifices (ask Ian Laperriere about that!) as does hockey.
It will be no different in the SHSHL, as eight Class AA teams and four Class A squads will battle their way through a postseason trek with dreams of league titles, Flyers Cup berths and perhaps even hoisting the Flyers Cup and state championship trophies.
It won’t be quite as grueling as an NHL postseason, but it will certainly be exciting. Rather than battling through best-of-seven series, the teams will deal with the pressure of single elimination (except during the best-of-three league finals) … play a bad quarterfinal or semifinal game and there is no tomorrow.
And as the league has shown throughout the season, any team can beat any other team on any given night.
“There are about four or five teams that are pretty equal and you’ve got to make sure you prepare properly,” said Joe Houk, coach of second-seeded Council Rock South. “You get a 1 (vs.) 8 matchup, or a 2-7 matchup, they can come in and match up good against you. When the playoffs one-and-done, if you come out play like crap, you’re finished.”
Here’s a rundown of Wednesday’s first-round games in Class AA:
#8 Souderton at #1 Central Bucks South, 7 p.m., Bucks County Ice Sports Center.
Records: Central Bucks South 16-0-1, first place, Continental Division (19-3-2 overall); Souderton 8-9-0, fourth place, Continental Division (10-10-2 overall).
Goals for: Central Bucks South 136; Souderton 91.
Goals allowed: Central Bucks South 44; Souderton 78.
This season: (Dec. 16) Central Bucks South 9, Souderton 3; (Jan. 13) Central Bucks South 4, Souderton 1.
Leading scorers: Central Bucks South: Connor Bechtel (21g, 23a, 44p), Nick DeLaurentis (12g, 17a, 29p), Kevin Casey (15g, 12a, 27p), Dominic Bova (14g, 13a, 27p), Jake Bauer (10g, 17a, 27p); Souderton: Brian McMullin (36g*, 18a, 54p), Rodney Anders (14g, 14a, 28p), Tyler DiPietro (8g, 14a, 22p). * denotes league leader.
#7 Council Rock North at #2 Council Rock South, 8:40 p.m., Bucks County Ice Sports Center.
Records: Council Rock South 15-1-2, first place, National Division (18-3-2 overall). Council Rock North 9-8-1, fourth place, National Division (12-10-2 overall).
Goals for: Council Rock South 123; Council Rock North 70
Goals allowed: Council Rock South 55; Council Rock North 66
This season: (Nov. 23) Council Rock South 4, Council Rock North 2; (Jan. 27) Council Rock South 2, Council Rock North 0.
Leading scorers: Council Rock South: Steve Junod (18 g, 21a, 39p), Kyle Walter (18g, 14a, 32p), Nick Keck (10g, 22a, 32p); Council Rock North: Michael Shander (13g, 10a, 23p), Josh Gregov (11g, 11a, 22p), AJ Garboski (8g, 13a, 21p)
#6 Pennsbury at #3 North Penn, 7:20 p.m., Hatfield Ice.
Records: North Penn 11-3-3, second place, Continental Division (13-4-5 overall); Pennsbury 8-7-3, third place, National Division (15-11-3 overall).
Goals for: North Penn 121; Pennsbury 93.
Goals allowed: North Penn 64; Pennsbury 76.
This season: (Nov. 11) North Penn 2, Pennsbury 1.
Leading scorers: North Penn: Matt Stella (17g, 20a, 37p), Jeremy Snyder (9g, 26a*, 35p), Ryan Merk (16g, 17a, 33p); Pennsbury: Luke Matthews (26g, 14a, 40 p), Nigel Honegger (17g, 19a, 36p), John Thornton (9g, 18a, 27p). * denotes league leader.
#5 Archbishop Wood at #4 Pennridge, 9 p.m., Hatfield Ice.
Records: Pennridge 10-5-2, third place, Continental Division (15-6-2 overall); Archbishop Wood 11-6-1, second place, National Division (13-8-1 overall).
Goals for: Pennridge 120; Archbishop Wood 96.
Goals allowed: Pennridge 64; Archbishop Wood 74.
This season: (Jan. 20) Archbishop Wood 3, Pennridge 2.
Leading scorers: Pennridge: Matt Brown (33g, 15a, 48p), Shane Lyons (9g, 21a, 30p), Tyler Shagen (14g, 15p, 29p); Archbishop Wood: Kevin Neiley (18g, 22a, 40p), Ryan Meinke (15g, 10a, 25p), Matt Mandes (11g, 14a, 25p).
The semifinal matchups will take place Thursday. The winner of the Souderton/C.B. South matchup will take on the Wood/Pennridge victor at 6:50 p.m. at Warwick Ice. The Rock North/South winner will face the Pennsbury/North Penn victor in the other semifinal. The best-of-three final begins Feb. 29.
Class A (the American Division in the SHSHL) playoffs begin on Thursday with the following semifinal matchups:
#4 Upper Moreland at #1 Lansdale Catholic, 7:20 p.m., Hatfield Ice.
Records: Lansdale Catholic 8-1-0, first place, American Division (11-10-1 overall); Upper Moreland 3-6-0, fourth place, American Division (9-11-0 overall).
Goals for: Lansdale Catholic 105; Upper Moreland 70.
Goals allowed: Lansdale Catholic 97; Upper Moreland 83.
This season: (Oct. 27) Upper Moreland 6, Lansdale Catholic 1; (Nov.3) Lansdale Catholic 8, Upper Moreland 5; (Jan. 12) Lansdale Catholic 7, Upper Moreland 0.
Leading scorers: Lansdale Catholic: Nick Sette (35g, 25a, 60p*), Michael Longhitano (12g, 17a, 29p), Andrew Hart (14g, 12a, 26p); Upper Moreland: Sean Lloyd (27g, 19a, 46p), Matt Baumgardner (17g, 14a, 31p), Nick Park Jr. (12g, 16a, 28p). * denotes league-leader.
#3 Wissahickon at #2 Upper Dublin, 7 p.m., Bucks County Ice Sports Center.
Records: Upper Dublin 3-5-1, second place, American Division (8-10-2 overall); Wissahickon 3-5-1, third place, American Division (7-11-2 overall).
Goals for: Upper Dublin 95; Wissahickon 80.
Goals allowed: Upper Dublin 92, Wissahickon 102.
This season: (Nov. 23) Upper Dublin 2, Wissahickon 2; (Jan. 6) Wissahickon 5, Upper Dublin 3; (Feb. 10) Upper Dublin 7, Wissahickon 2.
Leading scorers: Upper Dublin: Sam Etskovitz (24g, 23a, 47p), Tyler Peskin (10g, 23a, 33p), Ben Hoffmann (10g, 20a, 30p); Wissahickon: Dustin Rabinowitz (9g, 21a, 30p), David Pataki (7g, 20a, 27p), Luke Honorowski (16g, 9a, 25p).
The best-of-three Class A final will begin Feb. 29.
IT NEVER GETS OLD … After his Council Rock North team lost, 2-0, to district rival Council Rock South on Jan. 27, Eric Tye made a prediction that the two schools just might be lacing up the skates against one another one more time.
“I said a while back I didn’t think you’ve seen the last game between Council Rock North and South,” Tye said. “I guess we go for round three on Wednesday.”
The second-seeded Golden Hawks will face the seventh-seeded Indians in Wednesday’s first-round playoff game (8:40 p.m., Bucks County Ice Sports Center) in what has become almost as much of a tradition as the Rock Cup … the North/South postseason matchup.
So are the squads getting tired of seeing those same old faces for a third time?
“The kids are upset they didn’t get the sixth seed,” Tye said following the Indians’ season-ending victory over Pennsbury. Despite the win, which gave both teams identical league records, Pennsbury held the tiebreaker against North (goals scored in games against each other) and took the sixth seed. “They’re happy they won the game and they’re going to be ecstatic they’re playing Rock South. It’ll be fun.”
“We’re absolutely not upset,” said North goalkeeper Hayden Richards. “We haven’t beaten them in a couple of years. We definitely want to pull this one out.”
“You get tired of seeing the same faces,” North captain Mark McDonald said with a smile, “but the one time I ever beat them was my freshman year. I want the rest of the team to experience how great a feeling it is to beat your friends in a game you love. Nothing can explain it.”
It certainly won’t be an easy task. South boasts the second-highest-scoring offense in the SHSHL and has lost only once since Dec. 8 won six straight games to end the season. Goaltender Justin Houk has allowed just one goal in his last three games.
“We really pulled in the reigns the last month-and-a-half,” Coach Houk said. “We’ve really been on the kids about being attentive and being responsible and preparing properly. The forwards are starting to click, our goaltender is stepping up big time, the defense playing great. I think the kids are ready to rock.”
The Golden Hawks completed the league season with a single loss, to Central Bucks South, and a pair of ties (to Pennsbury and Archbishop Wood), but even though they racked up 15 victories – some in very dominating fashion – in 18 league games, Houk and his squad aren’t resting on their laurels.
“This year was different,” Houk said. “A lot of the games were much closer than they had been in years past. We only lost one and tied two, but it didn’t feel like we ran the table.
“I think our experience is going to play a big part. I have so many guys on my team I’ve had all four years, you want to be there in the end. We’ve been getting the seniors together and telling them, ‘If you can drive that bus, those younger guys are going to be right behind.’ It’s very important for these guys to step up a little bit.”
And, as the team has done all season, it will be counting on contributions from its second and third lines.
“We’ve been riding their butts about how the top guys are supposed to be out there scoring all the time, and the second and third line, if we can get a goal out of them guys now and then, that’s a plus,” Houk said. “Plus we’ve got some floating JV guys getting some ice time who are doing a tremendous job for us. If those role players can fill their roles, I think we’ll be in good shape.”
And while it may be a new year with new players, some things remain the same for Council Rock South … like lofty goals, for example. The defending Flyers Cup Class AA Champions are looking for a deep playoff run.
But if they want to end up playing a team from Western Pennsylvania in the state final, the postseason journey begins with a team from its own backyard.
“We’re excited about (playing Rock North),” Houk said. “They’re a very good team, but we think if we play our game, we’ll be all right.
“There are a lot of kids on that team they play club hockey with. We tell them, ‘You have your friends, then you go out and compete.’ You can be friends before the game, you can be friends after the game, but if you want to be there in the long run, you’ve got to play hard, battle hard and leave it all out on the table.”
KNIGHTS RIDING HIGH … Even though North Penn had secured a playoff berth before the last week of the season, the Knights were playing meaningful hockey right through to their final game. Battling Pennridge for the third seed in the Class AA playoffs, North Penn downed the Rams 4-2 on Feb. 15 to gain the inside track, then topped Central Bucks East in the season finale the next day to clinch the third spot.
The Knights have won six of their last eight games (with one of those losses coming against Class AAA Holy Ghost Prep) and are feeling confident that they can play with anyone they face off against.
“We’re happy with the way we’re playing right now,” said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. “We’ve got everybody back healthy now, our lines are all set, we’ve got a lot of chemistry going on. We’re excited heading into the playoffs.”
The Knights will open the playoffs Wednesday night against Pennsbury (7:20 p.m., Hatfield Ice), a team that has struggled with inconsistency at times, but remains a dangerous team, led by 40-point-scorer Luke Matthews and Nigel Honegger *36 points) and a solid goaltending tandem in Benjamin Herring and Jeff Stitt.
To help suppress the Falcons’ numerous offensive weapons, it doesn’t hurt that the Knights boast one of the top defensemen in the league in Caleb Witzaney.
“They’ve got a couple of real snipers up front,” Vaitis said. “It’s going to be a key for us to really shut Matthews down, not let him get going.
“Caleb will be playing a lot of minutes for us as we head into the playoffs. In my mind, he’s the best defenseman in the league. Hopefully, he and Jeremy Snyder and Richard Feher will be anchoring our defense and help us make a nice run here.”
Witzaney and Snyder are true double-threats for the Knights. The blueliners are also two of the team’s top scorers. Snyder’s 26 assists leads the SHSHL and Witzaney has 17 goals among his 30 points.
“Last year as a sophomore, at times during games Caleb would dominate,” Vaitis said. “He’s been that type of player this year as well. There were times he would go singlehandedly through a group of players and score a goal for us.”
Get past Pennsbury and the reward is a matchup against Council Rock South or North. While Vaitis will be happy simply moving forward in the playoffs, he admits there is a little added incentive in possibly facing the Golden Hawks again.
“We played them earlier in the year, and it was a really good game,” he said. “We lost 5-4 that was our first loss of the year, and I think some of the guys maybe have a bitter taste in their mouths going back to last year’s Flyers Cup when we lost to them 4-3 in the quarterfinals.
“And if we can get through Wednesday and Thursday, part of us wouldn’t mind seeing Central Bucks South in the finals.”
Of course, North Penn is only in control of its side of setting up those games. And that means taking one game at a time … first up – Pennsbury, which Vaitis expects will not be an easy task.
“When we played them earlier in the season, it was a 0-0 game until late in the second,” Vaitis said of the Knights’ 2-1 victory on Nov. 11. “The key for us is for our top two lines to really contribute and put some goals in. Hopefully we can jump on them, get an early lead and make them play catch-up the rest of the way. Pennsbury is a very well-coached team. We’re going to have to bring our A Game.
“We had a real wakeup call right after the new year when we lost to Souderton. We definitely know that anybody could show up and knock someone off. It’s going to be interesting to see what’ll transpire in the playoffs.”
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