La Salle 7 Devon Prep 0

The atmosphere of the Flyers Cup tournament is unique. A period of adjustment is often necessary. Therefore, it was not surprising that it took La Salle some time to get started against Devon Prep Tuesday night.

But, the Explorers eventually got rolling and the two-time defending Class AAA Flyers Cup champions rolled on to a 7-0 win over the Tide at Hatfield Ice Arena. The top-seeded Explorers (16-7) will move on to next Thursday’s semifinals against St. Joseph’s Prep or Father Judge. Devon Prep, the seventh seed, finished its third varsity season at 14-7.

While La Salle dominated on the scoreboard, it took some time for the Explorers’ offense to settle in. Cam Ross scored the only goal of the first period with just 56.4 seconds remaining.

Danny Burke extended the La Salle lead two minutes into the second frame.

“It was the first Flyers Cup game for easily half our team,” said La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner in explaining his team’s start. “There were a lot of jitters I think they had to get out.

“We played a pretty good game. Their goaltender (Grant Gales) was strong early on.

Nole Donohue extended the Explorer lead to 3-0 when he scored with exactly one minute left in the second period before Alistair St. Hilaire, Will Gregorio, Donohue, and Grant LaGreca found the back of the net in the third.

Donohue said the Explorers; experience and cohesion is showing when it matters most. “We have a good bond,” he said. “We all work good together.

“We work hard as a team and pick each other up. That’s what gets us all going.”

One individual seemingly unfazed by the environment was La Salle goaltender Jake Rossi who pitched a shutout, making 14 saves along the way. He spoke to what the Flyers Cup experience is like for his less-experienced teammates.

“I think for them it’s realizing the intensity and importance of it,” he said. “It was a little bit of a slow start today but around the second period and into the third we really put our foot down.”

Devon Prep coach Matt Fabrizio was disappointed with the result but not with his team’s effort.

“The way my guys came out and battled, the fight was pretty even up through the last minute or so of the second period when it was 2-0,” he said. “We were happy with the opportunity to play La Salle. We regard La Salle and Holy Ghost, and all those teams as the cream of the crop, so any chance we get to play those guys is a huge opportunity.”

Devon Prep 0 0 0—0

La Salle 1 2 4—7

First-period goal: Cam Ross (L) from Alistair St. Hilaire, 16:04

Second-period goals: Danny Burke (L) from St. HiIaire and Liam Greenwalt, 2:00; Nole Donohue (L) from Tristan Mitchell 16:00

Third-period goals: St. Hilaire (L) from Donohue, 6:02; Will Gregorio (L) from St. Hilaire and Julian Tarsi, 8:03; Donohue (L) from Tarsi, 11:13; Grant LaGreca (L) from Declan Kelly and Michael Zarzycki, 15:11

Shots: Devon Prep 17, La Salle 57; Saves: Grant Gales (DP) 50; Jake Rossi (L) 17

Flyers Cup Schedule Results, Tuesday March 4

Class AAA First Round

Holy Ghost Prep 10 Owen J. Roberts 0

The top-seeded Firebird blasted the eighth-seeded Wildcats Tuesday night at Hatfield Ice Arena in a Class AAA quarterfinal game that was terminated 1:07 into the third period.

Brady Logue scored three times for the Firebirds. John Gavaghan found the back of the net twice while five other players scored one goal each.

“We had a very simple plan tonight,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach John Ritchie, “to control the tempo and pace of the game against a team we were only able to video pre-scout against some common opponents.

“I would say we accomplished that but their team and goaltender deserve lot of credit for hanging in there.”

Holy Ghost Prep (19-4-1) will face either Malvern Prep or Salesianum in next Thursday’s semifinals.

Owen J. Roberts 0 0 0—0

Holy Ghost Prep 5 4 1—10

First-period goals: Brady Logue (HGP) from Anthony Valeriote, 3:01; Patryk Oszer from Michael Previtera, 7:32; John Gavaghan (HGP) from B. Logue and Valeriote, 9:25 (pp); William Harmar from Nate Romer, 10:19; B. Logue from Joe Spadaccino and Harmar, 16:15;

Second-period goals: B. Logue (HGP) from Joseph Kaufmann and Chase Logue, 11:04; C. Logue (HGP) from Kaufmann, 11:42; Kaufmann (HGP) from Spadaccino, 14:49; Gavaghan (HGP) from B. Logue, 16:07 (pp)

Third-period goal: Brian Kinniry (HGP) from Colin Bara, 1:07

Shots: O.J. Roberts 8, Holy Ghost Prep 43; Saves: Josh Burnheimer (OJR) 33, Jack Unger (HGP) 8

La Salle 7 Devon Prep 0—Check elsewhere on this site for details.

Class AA First Round

Spring-Ford 4 Central Bucks South 3—Dylan Cyr scored a shorthanded goal 5:11 into overtime as the 12th-seeded Rams stunned the fifth-seeded Titans at Hatfield Ice Arena.

Cyr’s winning goal, his second goal of the game, came when the Titans coughed up the puck behind their own net during a power play.

Spring-Ford trailed 3-1 going into the third period but goals from Stephen Falbo and William Schaeffer forced overtime.

The Titans trailed 1-0 after the first period but Logan Hood, Jake Stepp, and Ryan Frey all scored goals in a span of 3:04 to give South a two-goal lead with 7:48 left in the middle period.

The Titans closed the season at 17-7.

Spring-Ford will gave Haverford High in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Pennridge 7 Avon Grove 2—The seventh-seeded Rams took a 3-1 lead into the first period and broke the game open with four unanswered goals in the third at Hatfield Ice Arena. Nate McKean and Rush each scored two goals as the defending Class AA Flyers Cup and state champions began their defense. James Embert, Shane Dachowki, and James Young also scored goals. Dachowski contributed two assists while Jacob Winton recorded 28 saves in goal.

Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna spoke to the importance of his team’s fast start.

“Even with the new guy, we have a lot of experience,” he said. “We have. a lot of pride, we have. a lot of expectations. We’ve been here before, we know what needs to be done.

“We have enough guys in that locker room that understand that in this type of game you can win the game in the first period.”

Pennridge (14-8) will face second seed North Penn on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Downingtown West 3 Central Bucks East 1—Gavin Widmer gave the 11th-seeded Patriot a 1-0 lead with five seconds left in the second period but the sixth-seeded Whippets responded with three goals in the third.

Downingtown West will face Downingtown East in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

The Patriots closed the season at 10-10-1.

Class A First Round

Kennett 7 Strath Haven 1

Hershey 4 Hatboro-Horsham 1—Four different player scored for the sixth-seeded Trojans. Vince Graziani scored for the Hatters (12-9)

Marple-Newtown 9 Palmyra 3

Strath Haven 2 Moorestown 1

Strath Haven took its first steps into the Flyers Cup pool Monday night, and emerged to fight another day. Michael Leuthold’s goal with 12:30 left in the third period proved to be decisive as the Panthers bested Moorestown 2-1 Monday night in a Class A Flyers Cup play-in game at Hatfield Ice Arena.

The 13^th-seeded Panthers (5-13-2) will have little time to celebrate their victory; they’ll be back in action against fifth-seeded Kennett (6:30 at Ice Line) in a first-round game.

Going into the game, Strath Haven coach John Gavin anticipated that goals would be few, if only because his own team scored just 33 goals in 19 games prior to Monday night. He also knew that his goaltender Jacob Aranda was taking the ice with a .904 aver percentage.

“Given our goaltending, I knew their goaltending was strong, given how the stats played out, I figured that was the type of game we were going to have.

Primo Modesti gave Strath Haven a 1-0 lead when he beat Quakes netminder David Rho midst of a scramble in front of the net with 2:52 left in the first period.

As the game played out, it seemed one goal might be enough. Quality shots were rare, both goaltenders were sharp and physicality was minimal.

Michael Leuthold extended the Strath Haven lead 4:30 into the final period.

Jakub Brazina cut the deficit in half at the 7:15 mark but that was the only one of 41 Moorestown shots that Aranda could corral.

Gavin, naturally enough, celebrated the performance of his goaltender.

“It was a great win for the boys,” he said. “We got great goaltending from Jacob, who is a senior for us, who was great for us all night.

“We got two big goals that we desperately needed and now we have a big game {Tuesday} against Kennett.”

Gavin noted that his team avoided the breakdowns and errors that take a team out of a single-elimination tournament.

“We usually do a pretty good job with that,” he said. “Our struggle has been scoring goals. We’ve been working on the power play and I was hoping maybe tonight we’d get a power-play goal. We definitely generated some chances off of that I think led to momentum and scoring at even strength.

There were just five penalties called in the game, four of them against Moorestown The Panthers wound up with three power-play chances, one of them lasting four minutes but were outshot 41-26 for the evening.

Strath Haven 1 0 1—2

Moorestown 0 0 1—1

First-period goals: Primo Modesti (SH) from Carson Farrington, 14:08

Third-period goals: Michael Leuthold (SH) from Christian Henzel, 4:30; Hunter Orr (M) from Jakub Brazina and Charles Hartzell, 7:15

Shots: Strath Haven 26, Moorsetown 41 Saves: Jacob Aranda (SH) 40, David Rho (M) 24

P-W 9 Springfield-Delco 6

The goals came in bunches Monday night. Plymouth Whitemarsh stuck with the up-tempo approach that serve them so well during the season and continued to do so in its Flyers Cup debut.

Don Guller and Don Moloney each scored three goals as the Colonials overpowered Springfield Delco 9-6 in a Class A first-round game at Hatfield Ice Arena. Eighth-seeded Plymouth Whitemarsh (17-2) moves on to face top seed Garnet Valley Thursday night in the quarterfinals.

After falling to Hatboro-Horsham in the SHSHL American Division final last Thursday, Guller said his team came into the Flyers Cup with something to prove.

“Unfortunately we lost the championship to Hatboro-Horsham,” he said, “so I think that gave the urge to this team that ‘We need to go out here and win the game.'”

Springfield (5-15) goy things started with a goal from Gavin Ruppert 5:03 into the first period but tallies from Moloney, Blake Ambler, and John Zawislak have the Colonials a 3-1 advantage before the first period ended.

In the second frame, it was more of the same. Rocco Trivarelli scored for the Cougars 42 seconds into the period, but Guller, Ambler, and John Zawislak scored for Plymouth Whitemarsh in an eight-and-a-half minute span to make it a 6-3 game with 7:04 still left in the period.

In short, the game was evolving at pace the Cougars wanted to avoid.

“Offensively I thought we did a lot of things right,” said Springfield coach Dan Dilbeck. “The problem was, we broke down defensively too many times. We did not want to get into a run-and-gun match with these guys (the Cougars outshot the Colonials 39-31). We wanted to play a much more solid game on defense. That’s where we struggled this year and that’s where we struggled tonight.”

Springfield’s Mason Stallings made it a 6-3 game before Guller and Alexander Losaco traded goals to give the Colonials a three-goal cushion headed into a third period that saw Guller and Moloney complete their respective hat tricks with empty-net goal.

Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Vince Forti was pleased with the way his team recovered from their SHSHL finals loss.

“I think we really bounced back and responded,” he said. “and got back to playing the game the way we know we can.”

Forti said it was important for his team to see to their other responsibilities as well as score goals.

“That was the biggest thing we talked about going into this game,” he said. “Just keeping things simple, winning in the dirty areas, and doing the little things.

“At this point, when every game is must-win, you can’t take shifts off, you can’t take things lightly, and I think whatever team makes the least amount of mistakes ends up winning most of the time.”

Springfield 1 3 2—6

PW 3 4 2—9

First-period goals: Gavin Rupert (S) unassisted, 5:03; Don Moloney (PW) from Dan Guller, 6:19; Blake Ambler (PW) unassisted, 12:44 (sh); John Zawislak (PW) from Ryan Jagher 14:46

Second-period goals: Rocco Trivarelli (S) from James Happas and Jake Heston, :42; Ambler (PW) From Guller, 3:41 (pp); Guller (PW) from Luke Smith, 7:47; Moloney (PW) from Morgan Hulitt, 9:56; Mason Stallings (S) from Joe Clifford, 11:51; Guller (PW) from Smith, 14:05; Alexander Losacco (S) from Brendan Becker, 15:57

Third-period goals: Losacco (S) from Clifford, 6:19: Guller (PW) unassisted, 15:21 (en); Rupert (S) from Brandon Truax and Brett Rosser, 16:12; Moloney (PW) from Jagher, 16:46 (en)

Shots: Springfield 39, Plymouth Whitemarsh 31; Saves: Aidan Fitti (S) 22, Julian Lucks (PW) 33

Championhip Thursday 2-27

SHSHL

American Division Final

Hatboro-Horsham 5 Plymouth Whitemrash 2

National Division Final

Council Rock South 4vs. Central Bucks South 3

ICSHL

Prep/Catholic Final

Salesianum 6 Devon Prep 2—The Sallies overcame a 2-1 second-period deficit with five straight goals over the last period and a half. Connor Davis scored twice foe Salesianum with both goals coming in the third period.

Ches-Mont Final

Kennett 2 West Chester Henderson 1—Luke Ganley scored the winning goal with 5:11 left in the third period. Lucas Mott also scored for Kennett. Nick Denrdi’s goal gave Henderson a 1-0 lead late in the first period.

Central Final

Garnet Valley 10 Haverford High 0—A.J. Tenhuisen scored three goals and Dylan Orr added two more as Garnet Valley rolled to the Central League title at Ice Works. jake Morrow and Jake Robinson each recorded three assists.

Holy Ghost Prep and La Salle Set to Meet for APAC Title

APAC Founders Cup Championship Game

Wednesday, February 26 at Grundy Arena, 5:00 PM

(1) Holy Ghost Prep vs (2) La Salle

Holy Ghost Prep (17-4-1)

Coach: John Ritchie

Players to watch: Brady Logue 17 goals, 16 assists, 33 points; Joe Spadaccino 10-14-24; Anthony Valeriote 10-10-20; Brian Kinniry 15-4-19; Jack Unger 1.63 GAA, .926 save percentage; John Botthof 2.52 GAA, .891 save percentage

La Salle (15-6)

Coach: Wally Muehlbronner

Players to watch: Nole Donohue 12-15-27; Grant LaGreca 17-5-22; Julian Tarsi 10-10-20; Michael Zarzycki 10-10-20; Jake Rossi 1.78 GAA, .932 save percentage

This year: Holy Ghost Prep won both regular-season meetings, 3-1 on November 11 and 6-4 on December 11.

La Salle is the two-time defending APAC champion and comes into this game with a seven-game winning streak and having won nine of its last 10 starts. Holy Ghost Prep has won five straight and is unbeaten in its last seven starts and 14 of its last 15.

Ice chips: The teams have played in two previous Founders Cup finals. La Salle won both, 4-1 in 2020 and 7-3 in 2023. The Explorers have played in all five previous Founders Cup finals and are 4-1 in those games.

Holy Ghost Prep is 0-2 in Founders Cup finals. There was no title game in 2021 due to the pandemic; La Salle and Malvern Prep were declared co-champions.

Holy Ghost Prep is seeded first for the upcoming Class AAA Flyers Cup. La Salle is seeded second.

Organizers of the Pennsylvania state championship games announced Tuesday evening that the all-star game/showcase that was scheduled for Friday, March 21 in Pittsburgh has been postponed.

Flyers Cup Field Revealed

Forty-one teams in four divisions will comprise the field for the 2025 Flyers Cup tournament. The field was announced during the Flyers Cup Selection Show Sunday night.

First-round games will get underway on Monday, March 3 and action will continue through the middle of the following week.

The Class A field, with 14 teams, will be the largest in the tournament. The Class AA field will include 12 teams, the Class AAA bracket 8, and the girls’ bracket 7.

In years past, the Class A and AA fields have consisted of as many as 16 teams each but with just 37 Cup-eligible teams between the two divisions this season, the committee took a different approach.

Eric Tye is the President of the Flyers Cup Committee.

“We’re not putting everyone in just so everyone can be in,” he said. “There needs to be a cutoff. We came up with 12 (for Class AA). Do we feel bad for teams 13 and 14? I gues so. We feel bad for teams 15 and 16 in {Class A} and 9 and 10 in {Class AAA}.

“People aren’t going to agree with what we did, we know that, but we did what we think’s best.”

Brackets are listed below.

Class AAA (8 teams)

Quarterfinals, March 4 and 6

1 Holy Ghost Prep vs 8 Owen J. Roberts. 3-4; 6:15 at Hatfield Blue

4 Malvern Prep vs 5 Salesianum. 3-6; 6:30 at Ice Line 1

2 La Salle vs 7 Devon Prep. 3-4 6:00; at Hatfield Gray

3 St. Joseph’s Prep vs 6 Father Judge. 3-6; 8:30 at Skatium

Semifinals, Thursday March 13

Monday, March 17 or Wednesday, March 19

Class AA (12 teams)

First Round, March 3 and 4

8 Conestoga vs 9 Boyertown 3-4; 8:30 at Ice Line 1

4 Central Bucks South vs 12 Spring Ford 3-4; 8:30 at Hatfield Blue

7 Pennridge vs 10 Avon Grove 3-4; 8:10 at Hatfield Gray

6 Downingtown West vs 11 Central Bucks East 3-4; 6:15 at Ice Line AAA

Quarterfinals, Thursday, March 6

1 Council Rock South vs Conestoga or Boyertown 6:15 at Hatfield Gray

4 Haverford vs Central Bucks South or Spring Ford 6:30 at Skatium

2 North Penn vs Pennridge or Avon Grove 8:10 at Hatfield Gray

3 Downingtown East vs Downingtown West or C.B. East TBD

Semifinals

March 17 or 19

Finals TBD

Class A (14 teams)

Play In

Monday, Match 3

Play In

12 Moorsetown vs 13 Strath Haven 8:10 at Hatfield Blue

11 Radnor vs 14 Hatboro-Horsham 6:30 at Ice Line 1

First Round

Monday, Match 3

8 Plymouth Whitemarsh vs 9 Springield-Delco 6:00 at Hatfield Blue

7 Marple Newtown vs 10 Palmyra 6:30 at Skatium

Tuesday, March 4

First Round

Moorsetown or Strath Haven vs 5 Kennett

Radnor or Hatboro-Horsham vs 6 Hershey 8:30 at Skatium

Quarterfinals

Thursday, March 6

Plymouth Whitemrsh or Springfield-Delco vs 1 Garnet Valley 6:30 at Ice Works

Moorsetown, Strath-Haven, or Kennet vs 4 WC East at Ice Line

Marple Newtown or Palmyra vs 2 WC Henderson at Ice Line

Radnor, H-H or Hershey at Penncrest 8:30 at Ice Works

Semifinals March 11

Finals March 17

Girls (7 teams)

Monday March 3

Play in

6 West Chester East vs 7 Pennridge 8:30 at Ice Line

Wednesday, Match 5

Quarterfinals

4 West Chester Henderson vs 5 Radnor 7:45 at PNY

West Chester East or Pennridge vs 3 Conestoga 6:00 at PNY

Wednesday March 12

Semifinals

WC Henderson or Radnor vs 1 Avon Grove 6:00 at PNY

WC East, Pennridge, or Conestoga vs 2 Downingtown West 7:45 at PNY

Tuesday, March 18

Finals

6:00 ay PNY

Eric Tye and Rick Woelfel will discuss the tournament on the Hockey Happenings podcast which will drop on Monday, February 24

APAC Semifinal Preview

Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference Semifinals

Wednesday 2-19 at Grundy Arena

3:10 (2) La Salle vs. (3) St . Joseph’s Prep

5:20 (1) Holy Ghost Prep vs. (4) Malvern Prep

La Salle (14-6, 6-2 in APAC)

Coach: Wally Muehlbronner

Players to watch: Nole Donohue 10 goals, 14 assists, 24 points; Grant LaGreca 16-4-20; Michael Zarzycki 10-9-19; Jake Rossi 1.87 GAA, .929 save percentage

St. Joseph’s Prep (10-8, 5-3 )

Coach: David Giacomin

Player to Watch: Cole Gargon 13 goals, 5 assists, 18 points; Frank Ely 7-9-16; Noah Stuhl 4-10-14; Declan Geary 1.97 GAA, .925 save percentage

This year

11-6 La Salle 4 St. Joseph’s Prep 2

1-22 La Salle 3 St. Joseph’s Prep 2 OT

Holy Ghost Prep (16-4-1, 6-2)

Coach: John Ritchie

Players to watch: Brady Logue 15 goals, 15 assists, 30 points; Joe Spadaccino 10-12-22; Anthony Valeriote 10-10—20; Jack Unger 1.69 GAA, .923 save percentage; Matt Salita 1.80 GAA, .903 save percentage

Malvern Prep (5-9, 3-5)

Coach: Bill Keenan

Players to watch: James Young 3 goals, 6 assists, 9 points; Teague Murry 5-2-7; Andrew Starck 5-2-7; Matt Crawford 2.20 GAA, .912 save percentage

This year:

11-20 Malvern Prep 4 Holy Ghost Prep 2

12-12 Holy Ghost Prep 4 Malvern Prep 1

The two semifinal winners will meet for the Founders Cup championship on Wednesday, February 26 at 4 PM. The gme will be hosted by the highest seeded finalist.

Montagna Announces Retirement

Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna announced Thursday night that he will step down at the end of the season.

Montagna is in his seventh season behind the Rams’ bench.

His teams won Class AA Flyers Cup and state championships in 2022 and again last season. They also claimed SHSHL National Division titles in 2019 and ’22.

Montagna, who also coaches at the club level, said he needed a break from high-school hockey.

“I’m burnt out,” he said. “I can’t do this if I can’t give what needs to be given to it. I’m taking a step back and dealing with club hockey next year.

“I want to continue coaching high school but I need a little bit of a breather. Whether it’s a year, two years, whatever it is, it’s time.”

Flyers Cup Rankings 2-10-25

Class AAA

Holy Ghost Prep
La Salle
St. Joseph’s Prep
Malvern Prep
Salesianum

Class AA

Council Rock South
North Penn
Downingtown East
Haverford High
Central Bucks South

Class A

Garnet Valley
Kennett
West Chester Henderson
Penncrest
West Chester East

Girls

Avon Grove
Downingtown West
Conestoga
West Chester Henderson
Radnor

This marks the final set of Flyers Cup rankings prior to the Flyers Cup Selection Show on Sunday, February 23. The show will air at 8 PM that evening on the Flyers Cup You Tube Channel.