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Aaron Miller, left, of North Allegheny moves the puck against Will Hohman of Seneca Valley during the second period Dec. 13 at the Baierl Ice Complex. Miller had a hat trick to lead the Tigers to a 5-0 victory.
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North Allegheny hockey team heads into second half of season on a tear

Charles LeClaire/ For the Post-Gazette

North Allegheny hockey team heads into second half of season on a tear

After opening the season with four consecutive victories, North Allegheny was cautiously optimistic about its chances to contend for the PIHL Class 3A title.

Now as the season has reached its midpoint and the stretch run to the Penguins Cup tournament has begun, the Tigers optimism is climbing as well.

“I think right now we probably couldn’t have wished for our team to come on any better than they are,” North Allegheny coach Mike Bagnato said. “We have had some injuries, but we’ve played through them really well. We’ve got some young kids who have come in and played really well.”

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One of the biggest reasons North Allegheny is in first place in the nine-team classification has been the stellar play of goaltender Rich Karapandi, who has been nothing short of brilliant between the pipes. Coming into the week, he was 7-1-0 with a classification-best 1.38 goals-against average, a .948 save percentage and is the only netminder with two shutouts.

Jeremy Anthos (No. 81) is one of the top players returning for a Peters Township team that lost in the Penguins Cup championship a year ago.
Keith Barnes/Tri-State Sports & News Service
Experienced players have Peters Township hockey hunting for another title

“We’ve been able to play well in front of Richie and the forwards have been coming back a lot on defense,” Bagnato said. “But Richie has obviously been playing really well.”

North Allegheny has had two four-game winning streaks this season and has beaten every other team in the classification except Canon-McMillan at least once. The Tigers will have their opportunity for a rematch with the Big Macs on Jan. 21.

“I think the biggest thing for us is to tweak our game a little bit,” Bagnato said. “We don’t have our team captain Haden Shimko at least until the middle of January, but we have some tournaments coming up and we’re just trying to get the team playing the best that they can toward the end and doing all the little things right.”

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North Allegheny defeated Mt. Lebanon, 6-3, on Monday and will not play another PIHL game until its showdown with second-place Peters Township Jan. 7. To that end, the Tigers are playing in a local holiday tournament, then will play Gilmour Academy (Ohio) Jan. 26 and in a tournament at Notre Dame in February as a warmup to the playoffs.

“There’s a couple of really good teams from Chicago that will be there [at Notre Dame] and that will be a good test for us,” Bagnato said. “The way the schedule breaks up we’ll have time to get ready for the playoffs. We’ve been in contention for a few years now and we’ll see how all that shakes out.”

South Park

South Park might not have been one of the teams to look out for in Class 1A when the season began — getting shut out in back-to-back games by South Fayette and Thomas Jefferson by a combined score of 12-0 didn’t help — but the Eagles have shrugged off that sluggish start and are making inroads as a dark horse contender for the Penguins Cup.

Since losing to South Fayette, 7-0, on Oct. 15, South Park (8-2-1) has not lost a game in regulation and is 7-0-1 in its past eight. The only defeat was a 3-2 overtime loss to South Fayette Nov. 12, in which the Eagles showed a marked improvement over their first foray.

One of the reasons why South Park has improved has been its defense. In their past 11 games, the Eagles have given up only 14 goals, an average of 1.75 per game, and have not allowed more than three on any one night. Three different goaltenders — Shane Peremba, Sean Recktenwald and Trevor Schlater — have at least one win, and all three have a goals-against average under 2.60 and a save percentage of better than .910.

Franklin Regional

Things did not begin well for Franklin Regional this season when the team opened up with an overtime loss to Upper St. Clair. But the Panthers won their last three games before the holiday break and are showing signs of once again being a contender in Class 2A.

If nothing else, they are a statistical anomaly.

In something of a rarity, Franklin Regional won its second 8-7 game of the year Monday when it took a back-and-forth matchup with Quaker Valley. The Panthers earlier won a similar high-scoring affair with Hampton.

Franklin Regional does not have a scorer in the top-15 in the classification and is allowing 3.92 goals per game.

Yet despite the fact Franklin Regional has been outscored overall, 47-44, and is the only Class 2A team with a winning record to have a negative goal differential, the Panthers are 7-3-0-2 and are tied for first place in the Southeast Division with Hempfield, Latrobe and Upper St. Clair. All three of the other teams have two games in hand.

RANKINGS

(Records through Monday)

Class 3A

1. Peters Township 8-2-0

2. North Allegheny 10-2-0

3. Mt. Lebanon 6-4-0

4. Seneca Valley 5-5-0

5. Bethel Park 5-4-0

Class 2A

1. Pine-Richland 10-0-0

2. Latrobe 8-2-0

3. Mars 10-2-0

4. Hempfield 8-2-0

5. Upper St. Clair 7-1-2

Class 1A

1. Montour 10-0-0

2. West Allegheny 9-1-0

3. South Fayette 10-1-0

4. Meadville 9-2-0

5. South Park 8-2-1

First Published: December 21, 2018, 12:00 p.m.

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Aaron Miller, left, of North Allegheny moves the puck against Will Hohman of Seneca Valley during the second period Dec. 13 at the Baierl Ice Complex. Miller had a hat trick to lead the Tigers to a 5-0 victory.  (Charles LeClaire/ For the Post-Gazette)
Charles LeClaire/ For the Post-Gazette
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