Pennridge captured its second PA State Class AA Scholastic Championship with a 7-5 win over Thomas Jefferson at Skatium in Havertown. Photos provided courtesy of Michael Rice. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f710114994 (Team photo credit: Bob Adams/PA Cup)
(Photo credit: Bob Adams/PA Cup)
PA State Class AA Scholastic Championship
PENNRIDGE 7, THOMAS JEFFERSON 5
Call it mission accomplished for the Pennridge ice hockey team.
Two years after capturing the program’s first ever state title with a double overtime win over Thomas Jefferson, the Rams found themselves facing Thomas Jefferson again in Saturday’s state championship game. Once again, they prevailed, twice rallying from behind to defeat an immensely talented Jaguar team that brought a 14-game winning streak into Saturday’s contest.
The final horn had barely sounded when the celebration – which included the players all but climbing over the glass to their jubilant fans – could begin at last.
“It’s special,” senior Andrew Savona said. “It means so much to us seniors and to everyone on the team. To end it all with a state championship my senior year, there’s no better feeling because we worked so hard the past four years, making it to the Flyers Cup semis freshman year and making it to three finals in a row, and to take two of them and to win state championships both of those years – it’s hard to describe. I’m so proud of us.”
Saturday’s win was sweet indeed, especially for the seniors who were part of the state title team two years ago.
“Two years ago, I feel like we kind of had one step on everyone,” said senior Colin Dachowski, a veteran of the state title squad that rolled through the entire season without a loss. “This one we definitely had to work much harder. For this to be my last game, it just means so much with this team to win it all and go out on top.”
Last year’s season ended with a heartbreaking loss to Pennsbury in the Flyers Cup Final.
“To bounce back after what frankly was the most devastating thing I ever went through as a coach – losing that Flyers Cup final last year – and to come back and finish this, I told the players before the game – there’s only one way this could end with what they’ve done in three years,” coach Jeff Montagna said. “There was no other way for it to end. We weren’t going to lose, the only way for this to end was for us to win like we did today.”
Listening to senior Kevin Pico tell it, the leaders took intentional steps to ensure there would be no rerun of last year’s disappointing ending.
“Two years ago, I think we knew the team we had was unstoppable and how close we were,” said Pico, who scored the overtime game-winner in the state title game two years ago. “Last year, no one really hung out outside of hockey. We weren’t really close like that, and this year, we turned it around. We did a bunch of stuff with the team in the beginning of the year, got everyone close, and I think that made it a lot better.”
Still, a state title might have seemed improbable as recently as three short weeks ago after the Rams took a 7-2 beating at the hands of Council Rock South in the SHSHL title game.
“It was a shocker to lose that game in general, but to lose 7-2 and then to be able to bounce back in the Flyers Cup championship and to beat them 7-3, that was huge,” Savona said. “It definitely would have been nice to have that league championship, but to take the Flyers Cup and now the state championship, I’ll take that any day.”
Surviving a shaky start
While early judgements aren’t worth a lot, it looked as though a state title might not be in the cards this time around when the Jaguars scored 27 seconds into Saturday’s game and upped that lead to 2-0 with a power play goal six minutes later while dominating play.
“They came out and they were a lot faster than we were at the start,” Dachowski said. “They all had really good shots. If you give them that much room, they’re going to score, and they took advantage of that.”
“They came out flying,” Pico said. “They came out way faster and more physical than we did. But we knew we couldn’t get down on each other. We all just kept our heads up. We just had to stay positive and have each other’s backs.”
After the Jaguars scored their second goal, Montagna called a much-needed timeout.
“We needed to settle down,” the Rams’ coach said. “We had been in that position a lot. They’re experienced. We needed to settle down, and we did that.
“That team was a good team, that team has a lot of speed, and we kind of had to tweak with the defensemen how they were defending them because the first two goals were pretty much the same type of goals.”
There was no mistaking the significance of the timeout.
“At the timeout, our coach told us we had to step it up and play faster and more physical and match them,” Pico said. “When we’re playing fast and physical, we’re a scary team to play.”
“It was shocking at first definitely for them to score on that first shift and first shot,” Savona said. “And for them to go up 2-0 on us, it was scary, but Jeff took that timeout to calm us down, so it definitely helped us.”
It also helped that the Rams – despite the Jaguars’ dominance – were able to cut their lead in half with a textbook goal that began with Savona passing to Pico, who found Colin Dachowski for a goal with 6:01 remaining in the opening period.
“It was huge to cut it to a one-goal lead,” Dachowski said. “If they scored again, it could have put us away, but to get that goal before the end of the period means a lot because if you go down two goals after one period with no goals, you start to lose your confidence.”
“Just getting a goal gives us so much momentum,” Savona said.
So, despite being outshot 21-6 in the opening period, the Rams trailed by just a 2-1 score heading into the second period.
“It was almost a clone of the Council Rock South game the other night,” Montagna said of his team holding a tenuous 2-1 lead after one quarter in that game despite being outshot 18-5. “We took their best shot.”
The Rams evened the score less than three minutes into the second period when Shane Dachowski scored a power play goal, using assists from Pico and James Rush. Three minutes later, Pico scored with assists from Nick Young and Shane Dachowski to give the Rams their first lead (3-2).
The Jaguars answered with back-to-back goals by Lucas Blose and Nathan Weiss to go on top 4-3 with 9:34 remaining in the second period.
The turning point
There are defining moments in every game, and the defining moment in Saturday’s game came less than a minute after Weiss gave his team the one-goal lead when Jacob Stock – the Jaguars’ top scorer – received a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for spearing. He was forced to spend the remainder of the game in the locker room.
Savona – on the receiving end of the spearing - explained.
“I got into it after the whistle with the kid – I cross-checked him because he was right in front of our goalie, and he speared me, and they ended up kicking him out,” Savona said. “I was surprised.
“That was huge. I thought it was going to be a two-minute penalty, and it ended up being five and getting kicked out. I was in shock. Him being one of their better players – it was huge for us. It gave us so much momentum.”
Momentum is almost an understatement. Twelve seconds into the power play, Savona scored with an assist from Colin Dachowski, and the Rams weren’t finished yet. With 5:31 remaining, Rush connected on a power play goal with a Savona assist, and it was clear, the five-minute major was a game-changer.
“We were down at that point, and (Stock) is probably one of the best players on the team,” Colin Dachowski said. “When you take him out, especially for five minutes and if you score it doesn’t expire, you really have to take advantage of that. That was a big moment in the game.”
The Rams took a 5-4 lead into the third period, and Rush gave Pennridge a two-goal edge early in the period when he redirected a pass from Josh Kelly into the goal. Thomas Jefferson’s Liam Mahoney scored with 10:24 remaining to make it a one-goal game, but with 8:04 remaining, Shane Dachowski connected for his 11th goal of a superb postseason to give the Rams a 7-5 lead that held until the final horn.
Discipline – the Rams had it – If ever a game underscored the importance of discipline, this was it.
“Discipline is everything,” Montagna said. “It’s funny because in the first period, I didn’t think we were getting any calls at all.
“When we got the lead, I thought that team really started to get frustrated. The spearing penalty where the kid got a five-minute major changed the entire game. It changed everything. In that situation, it can’t happen.”
The Rams’ coach went on to credit his team for maintaining its composure.
“We did a really good job,” Montagna said. “We took a bunch of penalties early, but they weren’t undisciplined penalties. They were trips and things that happened within the course of the game. Them putting us on the power play for five minutes – we were down 3-2, and what it did – it really got my top line going. I thought in the first period they were off. That team was obviously prepared to play against them. When we took the lead there, I thought they really got a lot more jump, and they were a lot more dominant the rest of the game.”
The importance of discipline was not lost on the players.
“They kept taking penalties after the whistle,” Pico said. “That five-minute spearing penalty just gave us momentum.
“Last year, we didn’t have a good reputation with refs, and this year, we knew the refs were going to say stuff, call tight games. We all just shut our mouths and didn’t do anything after the whistle.”
“Every time they tried to knock us down – it worked out for us,” Colin Dachowski said. “So that was helpful.
Winton a winner between the pipes – On a day when the entire Pennridge squad got off to a slow start, goalie Jacob Winton, who has been superb during the Rams’ postseason, saw the Jaguars first shot of the game find the net.
His teammates were not concerned.
“We always have Winton’s back even when he lets in that first shot and for them to get another one - we always have his back,” Savona said. “We just wanted to help him out and give him his confidence, and it showed throughout the game.”
Like his teammates, Winton also benefitted from the early timeout.
“Chris Pico – his son Ryan was a goalie, so he understands goalies really well,” Montagna said of his assistant. “When we called that timeout, Chris brought Jacob over. When Jacob gets in trouble sometimes, he’s too deep in the net. He had to get out a little more to challenge that, and that’s something Chris told him.
“Jacob really settled down after that. They were great shots, but a little tweak in net that Chris gave him helped a lot.”
After a slow start, Winton once again stood tall in goal, allowing just three goals the rest of the way.
“I said it for four years – we’re never going to be a lockdown defensive team,” Montagna said. “That’s not how we play, that’s not who we are, and you need your goaltender do what Jacob did today – to shake off a rough start and keep you in the game because if that’s 3 or 4-1 at the end of the period, and that team’s able to settle in and just kind of play defense, you don’t win the game, you just don’t win it.”
The Rams won it because Winton turned away 43 shot in yet another brilliant outing.
“For two years, that team was better than us,” Montagna said of Thomas Jefferson. “Top to bottom, they were flat out better than us, but for two years, we had one thing they didn’t, and that was goaltending. You have to have that to win.”
Thomas Jefferson had 48-33 advantage in shots, but Winton negated that advantage.
Twice as nice - According to Montagna, only five players on this year’s squad saw meaningful minutes in the state title game two years ago - Shane and Colin Dachowski, Savona, Pico, Trey Mikulich and Tyler Manto.
“They are the single most competitive players I’ve been around,” Montagna said. “Because of that, it’s not always been easy me with them. We haven’t always agreed on things because they have so much confidence in themselves that they don’t like coming off the ice. Their sheer will – they fear nothing, they fear no one. They play with so much confidence. It doesn’t matter who they’re playing.
“What at times drove me insane about them is their greatest strength. They basically put an entire program on their back. That Thomas Jefferson team we played today had 11 seniors on that team that were on that state team two years ago when we played. You’re talking about 11 guys. I don’t know the breakdown, but they still had 11 seniors. We have six. I think being there before did help.”
While the veterans stole the spotlight, this was – according to the Rams’ coach – a win for every member of the squad.
“For me, what I’m most happy about is that from the top guys down – we have a guy on our team Ian Brouse, who didn’t get a shift today, and he’s a senior,” Montagna said. “I grabbed him with 30 seconds left, and I said, ‘I know you didn’t play much in the playoffs. I know you got a few shifts here and there, but you were an incredible teammate. You never complained, and you know what - you’re a state champion now, and
nobody can ever take that away from you.
“So, to watch the guys who don’t get the publicity, who sometimes get forgotten by everyone because of the sheer aura around that top line – to watch those guys celebrate and to know they’re going to get a state championship ring and they contributed to it, that is the thing that makes me most proud. It really is.”
Thomas Jefferson 2-2-1 5
Pennridge 1-4-2 7
Shots: TJ 48, Pennridge 33. Saves: Ronald Porupsky (TJ) 26, Jacob Winton (P) 43.
First period: 1. Jacob Stock TJ (Ryder McGuirk/Andrew Oliver) 16:33; 2. Scott Allan TJ, 10:57; 3. Colin Dachowski P (Andrew Savona/Kevin Pico) 6:01.
Second period: 4. Shane Dachowski P (Kevin Pico/James Rush) 15:15; 5. Kevin Pico P (Nick Young/Shane Dachowski) 12:28; 6. Lucas Blose TJ (Nathan Weiss) 11:21; 7. Nathan Weiss TJ (Scott Allan) 9:34; 8. Andrew Savona P (Colin Dachowski) 8:14; 9. James Rush P (Andrew Savona) 5:29.
Third period: 10. James Rush P (Josh Kelly) 12:51; 11. Liam Mahoney TJ (Andrew Oliver/Ryan Galis) 10:24; 12. Shane Dachowski P (Kevin Pico) 8:04.
- Log in to post comments
