Peters Township claims PIHL & state hockey titles
Peters Township players celebrate after beating Central Catholic, 5-2, and capturing the PIHL Class AAA championship. The Indians went on to win the Pennsylvania Cup, too, knocking off Holy Ghost Prep, 2-1, in the state final.
Peters Township’s Stephen Rex (No. 80) chases down the puck despite pressure from a Central Catholic defender during Penguins Cup championship action in the Class AAA division.
Peters Township’s Jack Underwood prepares to take a shot against Central Catholic during Penguins Cup action.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township’s Conner Gielarowski keeps his eye on the net while he controls the puck during Penguins Cup action in 2017.
Peters Township completed a Cinderella season in ice hockey by sweeping two titles within four days. After winning the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League’s Class AAA championship with a resounding victory against top-seeded Central Catholic, 5-2, on March 22 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, the sixth-seeded Indians shocked Holy Ghost Prep, 2-1, in the state championship contest played March 25 at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.
“I guarantee nobody but us thought we had a shot going into this but we felt pretty good going into (the tournament) that we were going to win,” said PT skipper Rich Tingle.
The Indians’ championship journey began with an upset win against rival Canon-McMillan, 2-1. A shellacking, 7-0, of North Allegheny set the stage for the PIHL final against Central.
The championship run also started with a switch in the nets. Alex Wilbert took over the reins shared throughout the regular season with senior Wesley Kaylor and Brock Sharbaugh. Wilbert stopped 23 shots against the Vikings and 37 against Holy Ghost Prep.
During PT’s playoff run, Wilbert went 4-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average. The freshman also stopped 1008 of 112 shots for a save percentage of .964.
“Throughout the regular season, we’ve played all of them with Wes being the upper classmen,” Tingle explained. “At the right time, Mr. Wilbert looked ready to go. He had a good game and he was confident so we stuck with him. He plays within himself and it’s made all the difference.”
Defense also made the difference in PT’s run. Tingle noted how the Indians lost to the Big Macs, 5-3, before the playoffs commenced and finished in sixth place in the team standings with a 10-8-2 record.
“In the last game of the regular season, we got thumped,” Tingle said. “We felt like we needed to change things up and the kids stuck with what the game plan was and the game plan has been from the first playoff game on was to play a lot more defensively and make sure we beat teams that way.
Let them come to us. It paid off.”
Though the Indians surrendered the first goal in the PIHL final, they rebounded with a pair of second-period scores against Central to take the lead for good. Peters packed on three more tallies in the third period.
Five different players were credited with scores: Nicholas Young, Conrad Deemer, William Barnes,, Ryan Luppe and Cal Raymore. Luppe dished up a pair of assists. Matthew Michalowski, Jace Cochrane, Raymore and Barnes also picked up assists.
Luppe led the attack against Prep. He initiated the scoring at 8:05 of the first period. On the power-play goal, Michalowski and Raymore assisted.
Though Holy Ghost knotted the contest at 4:45 of the third period, Barnes scored the decisive tally with 1:26 left. Jeremy Anthos earned an assist on the power-play goal.