All night long Mt. Lebanon made an effort to shadow North Allegheny center Connor Chi all over the ice, preventing him from having an opportunity to decide the Penguins Cup game.
Mt. Lebanon only lost him one time. And that one time was enough to give the Tigers a championship.
Chi, the only North Allegheny (16-5-2) player to score in double-figure goals during the regular season, ripped his third goal of the playoffs over the right shoulder of Mt. Lebanon netminder Austin Martin for what turned out to be the game-winner at 8:04 of the third period. That goal, along with a stalwart 33-save effort from senior goaltender Josh Bailey, propelled the fourth-seeded Tigers to a 4-1 victory over No. 7 Mt. Lebanon (11-10-2) in the PIHL Class 3A Penguins Cup final at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.
“The one thing in a game like this is your goalie has got to play well,” North Allegheny coach Mike Bagnato said. “Conner did score the goal, but Josh kept us in that game.”
It was the fourth title overall for North Allegheny, which became the first school to successfully defend a championship since Bethel Park won three straight from 2000-02 The Tigers won in 2019 and the Tigers were alive in the semifinals when the COVID-19 shutdown stopped the playoffs in the semifinals in 2020.
“It gives me satisfaction every time as many times as I’ve been here now,” Bagnato said. “I tell my kids all the time, this is the greatest time.”
That might not have happened had Chi not broken a 1-1 tie with his goal. Chi took the puck off the left wing boards, wheeled between the circles and snapped a wrist shot from 15 feet past Martin for the goal. It was eerily reminiscent of the goal he scored 30 second into overtime against Peters Township in the semifinals to get the Tigers into the finals.
“It felt awesome and, it wasn’t in overtime, but it felt good to get us ahead and our team, altogether, we pulled it off in the end,” Chi said. “I just tried to rip it on net and see what happens.”
It also wouldn’t have happened were it not for Bailey and the 19 shots he stopped in the second period.
“We kind of gave them the outside defensively and there were a lot of outside shots and they just chipped in the little stuff,” Bailey said. “It was terrible (in the second period). We couldn’t get it out, we gave up a lot of shots, a lot of hard shots, but we fought through it, we came back in the third and we got the win.”
With a one-goal lead on a Nathan Spak goal at 3:04 of the first period, North Allegheny clamped down defensively and made moving the puck a nightmare for Mt. Lebanon. Despite taking three minor penalties, the Tigers executed their game plan to perfection until Sam Mtchell tied it, 1-1, at 10:51 of the second period..
“In a game like this, special teams makes all the difference and we were 0 for 3 on the power play and had a lot of golden opportunities in the second,” Mt. Lebanon coach Jeremy Church said. “I don’t blame the players for that because special teams starts with coaching and I should have made some more adjustments.”
Class 1A
Indiana coach Jordan Haines had blood streaming out of a cut on his lower lip after being hit in the face with a stick.
It didn’t even register.
Nothing mattered except the fact that Indiana had pulled off the seemingly impossible and finally won a Penguins Cup title.
And it only took seven tries.
“I really don’t even have words,” Haines said. “Playing 20 years ago for that opportunity and letting it slip, coaching five times including one with COVID and letting it slip and never won it. We’ve always had a good program and I can’t even explain it.”
Tanner Agnello made it happen almost single-handedly as he notched a natural hat trick in the second period, then helped the team hang on in the waning seconds as top-seeded Indiana (20-0-0) completed a perfect PIHL slate with a 3-2 victory against third-seeded Chartiers Valley (14-5-1) to finally bring the Class 1A Penguins Cup title to Indiana.
“I didn’t expect to score a hat trick,” Agnello said. “I was sketchy in the first and then Haines kept screaming at me to shoot. I just listened to them, I shot and it ended up in the back of the net.”
Winning a Penguins Cup is a challenge and Indiana certainly didn’t have an easy time of it against Chartiers Valley. Despite the fact the Little Indians were staked to a 3-0 lead heading to the third period, it nearly all came crashing down around them as the Colts made a run in the final minutes. Greg Kraemer scored a controversial power-play goal at 8:35 to break up the shutout bid by Indiana netminder Seamus O’Connor. The goal came at the end of a two-man advantage almost immediately after the first penalty to Zach Eisenhower expired to make it a normal 5-on-4.
What made it controversial was that the clock operator failed to start the clock for more than 15 seconds after the faceoff when Ethan Agnello was sent to the box for tripping a minute into the Eisenhower minor. That gave Chartiers Valley extra time to work on the two-man advantage and, because of when the goal was scored, had the clock started when it should have, Indiana would have had an extra skater on the ice and perhaps been able to prevent the goal from being scored.
Chartiers Valley got its second on a Jackson Fodor breakaway at 11:43 to make it a one-goal game and had an outstanding opportunity to tie when it was given a power-play chance with the goaltender pulled and 52.1 seconds remaining. But Indiana was able to kill off the 6-on-4 and escape with the title.
“You’d think it was like the Stanley Cup or something and, to us, it is,” Haines said. “We’ve put in more time than I bet anybody has with film, game-breakdown, practices. The excitement level is through the roof and, anybody who thinks this is easy, that’s an understatement.”
First Published: April 20, 2021, 3:46 a.m.
