The PIHL Class A Penguins Cup championship game is set between No. 2 Avonworth and No. 3 Quaker Valley.
In the first semifinal matchup Wednesday night, Avonworth shut out top-seeded Canon-McMillan, 4-0, to make its second-straight Penguins Cup final. In the nightcap, Quaker Valley advanced to its ninth championship game, and first since 2018, after defeating No. 2 Mars, 3-1.
The first period of the opening game was dominated by the goalies, which didn’t surprise Avonworth (19-3-1).
“It’s the kind of period we expected against them,” Antelopes coach Chris Chiusano said. “We knew that they were going to be a tough opponent. We knew they had a fantastic goaltending. And I think, you know, both teams really played persistent in the first period, trying to feel each other out a little bit and see if we could get some chinks in each other’s armor.”
However, in the second period, Avonworth found more than a few chinks in the Big Macs’ armor, as it lit up the No. 1 seed for four goals, starting with Cooper Powell at the 8:32 mark of the period.
After Brendan Hennigan won a faceoff, he directed the puck to Linus Jesionowski, who no-looked a pass to Powell, who fired in the game-winning goal. Seeing the lamp lit once just wouldn’t be enough for the top-scoring team in the PIHL, though.
A minute later, Austin Dzadovsky ripped a shot at Aiden Bobbs, but it ricocheted behind the net. Ryan Ford eventually emerged from the pack behind the net and snuck a pass across the face of goalie Aidan Bobbs to Luke Ermlich for the latter’s 14th goal of the year.
A Canon-Mac turnover in the neutral zone at the 5:43 mark then got Powell loose on the break with one defender to beat. After juking Dylan Isbell, Powell slid in his second goal of the game and 26th of the season in the bottom left corner for the 3-0 lead.
The Antelopes tacked on one more goal at the 1:08 mark of the second after Joey Moore redirected a Jack Sutch shot. Sutch and Owen Stiers picked up the assists on the final goal of the game.
With the win, Avonworth advances to defend its Class A crown against Quaker Valley.
“It feels good,” Chiusano said of his team advancing to the finals for the second straight season. “I’m really proud of my guys, and I’m extremely excited for all of them. They worked hard this season. They worked extremely hard tonight, so it’s good.”
Winning goalie Andrew Hetcko had his third shutout of the season after making 16 saves. On the other side, Bobbs made 29 saves on 33 shots on goal as Canon-McMillan’s season ended at 20-2.
Avonworth’s opponent in the finals actually fell behind early in its semifinal matchup against Mars.
Not even three minutes in the game, the Fightin’ Planets took advantage of a Quaker Valley turnover in its own zone. Cooper Stevens advanced the puck to Garrett Myers, who used some fancy footwork to guide the puck to his forehand and fire in a wrist shot past netminder Ian Lorang. Alexander Gatto picked up a helper.
Quaker Valley needed only 64 seconds to come up with its response, though. A Mars turnover in the neutral zone got Stefan Mauer and Ben McHenry out on a break. They weren’t alone, though, as Mauer had to thread a pass between three Mars defenders before McHenry did the rest, shimmying Carter Gallagher out of the way for the game-winning goal.
The games stayed tied 1-1 for most of the second until the 5:22 mark.
On a power play, Jack Watson fired in a shot from the hash with an assist to Luke Koehler for the 2-1 lead. The goal of the game, though, came from Matthias Lezama with 17 seconds left in the second.
With a man down, the Quakers got the puck out of their zone, which Lezama pursued down the ice. Gallagher stopped the puck, but a miscommunication on the pass to Jack Weaver gave Lezama his first chance. He fired off a shot, but Gallagher made a diving save. As the puck slid to the end boards, Lezama skated around the back of the net and shoveled it in to give his team the final 3-1 lead.
Ian Lorang got his third win of these playoffs for Quaker Valley. He has now made 65 saves on 68 shots (.956). Quaker Valley is now 21-1-1.
Mars fell short of its shot at redemption against Avonworth and ends the season 18-2-2. Gallagher allowed three goals on 24 shots.
The Class A finals are set for 8:45 p.m. Tuesday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.