Flyers Cup Class AAA Semifinals on Tap

The Flyers Cup Class AAA semifinals  will go on as scheduled Thursday night at Hatfield Ice. Top-seeded Holy Ghost Prep will face fifth-seeded Father Judge in the 6:30 opener. Second seed and  defending champion La Salle will face St. Joseph’s Prep in the 8:45 nightcap.

The finals will be held Friday at Ice Line with a scheduled 7 p.m. start.

Holy Ghost Prep vs. Father  Judge 6:30

Fifth-seeded Father Judge carries a 12-game winning streak into the semifinals. The Crusaders are 18-5 overall and are the champions of the Intercounty League’s PCL Division. Sean Melso leads the Crusaders in scoring with 14 goals and 29 assists for 43 points. Robert Werner has provided 27 goals and 15 assists for 42 points. The Crusaders have won two Cups,  the Class AA crown in 1993 and the Class AAA title in 2000.

Top-seeded Holy Ghost Prep (14-4-2-1-0)  has won eight of its last nine games. It’s only loss in that span came against La Salle in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference championship game. Byron Hartley leads the team in scoring with 23 goals and 15 assists for 38 points. Evan Mudrick has added 12 goals and 10 assists for 22 points. The Firebirds won the Class AA championship in 2003 and Class AAA titles in 2007, ’15, and ’17.

La Salle  vs. St. Joseph’s Prep 8:45

La Salle, the defending champion and second seed,  is seeking to win its 12th Flyers Cup title, an all-time record (11 have come in Class AAA, one in Class AA. The Explorers are 13-11-2-2 heading into the semifinals. They’ve won six straight games and seven of their last nine. Keennan Schneider leads the Explorers in scoring with nine goals and 18 assists for 27 points. David Kimmel has provoded 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points.

St. Joseph’s Prep (11-9-1-4 in all competitions) captured its first Flyers Cup title two years ago. This year’s team relies on balance. Jimmy Craig is pacing the team in scoring with seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points.

Flyers Cup Schedule Revised in Response to Coronavirus

The Flyers Cup Committee has revised and consolidated the remainder of the tournament schedule. The revisions were made because of ongoing concerns re; the coronavirus. The game times  and sites listed below are as of 11:30 AM on March 12.

Thursday, Match 12

Class AAA Semifinals at Hatfield Ice

6:30 Holy Ghost Prep vs. Father Judge

8:45 La Salle vs. St. Joseph’s Prep

Friday, March 13

7:00 Class AAA Final at Hatfield Ice

Saturday, March 14

NJ/DE Semi – Finals at Vorhees
   4:45pm – Moorsetown vs Wash Twp
    7:00pm – Salesianum vs Shawnee
Girls Semifinals at Iceline
2:00pm – Unionville vs Buxmont
4:00pm- WC East vs WC Henderson
Sunday, March 15
Sun 3/15 – AA Final Perkiomen Valley vs Downingtown West, 4 pm at Iceline
Sun 3/15 – Girls Final – 6pm at Iceline
Sun 3/15 – A Final Hershey vs Palmyra, 7pm at Klick Lewis Arena
Our thanks to the Flyers Cup Committee

Flyers Cup Update

New Jersey/Delaware

Quarterfinals

Tuesday, March 10 at the Coliseum in Voorhees

Washington Township 7, Eastern 6 OT

Moorestown 3, Cherokee 2 OT

Shawnee 7, Appoquinimink 3

Salesianum 5, Egg Harbor 2

 

 

Class AA

Wednesday, March 11 at  Skatium

Semifinals

6:30 2 Haverford vs 3 Perkiomen Valley

8:45 5 Downingtown West vs 8 Boyertown

Tuesday, March 17 at Ice Line

8:15  Championship Game

 

Class AAA

Thursday. Match 12 at Hatfield Ice

Semifinals

6:30 1 Holy Ghost Prep vs 5 Father Judge

8:45 2 La Salle vs 3 St. Joseph’s Prep

Wednesday, March 18 at Hatfield Ice

7:00 Championship Game

 

La Salle 8, Roman Catholic 1

HATFIELD— Keenan Schneider is playing his first season of varsity hockey for La Salle. But the sophomore is making his presence felt, night in and night out. Schneider scored four goals and added two assists Thursday night as the Explorers rolled over Roman Catholic 8-1 in a Class AAA Flyers Cup quarterfinal game at Hatfield Ice.

Next up is the semifinal round; the Explorers will face third-seeded St. Joseph’s Prep in a game that is tentatively set for next Wednesday or Thursday. The site and time are expected to be finalized sometime Friday.

Schneider, who plays left wing, had plenty of help from his linemates. Center David Kimmel, a junior, scored a goal and assisted on five others, including all four of Schneider’s. Right wing Jake Hannon, also a junior, added a goal and an assist.
The trio joined forces in midseason. Coincidentally, it wasn’t long after that that La Salle’s fortunes took a great leap forward.

“We just have good chemistry together,” Schneider said. “We get along in school, we’re good friends. We just play. Once we get one, we want to get a lot more.”
La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner credited the line for giving La Salle some early momentum Thursday night. “That line has had really good chemistry,” he said. “We kind of stumbled into that line, by default almost, but they’ve really clicked.”

Second-seeded La Salle 13-11-2-2 overall) skated the scoring at the 5:43 mark of the first period when David Kimmel beat Cahillite goaltender Michael Smith with a forehander from midway between the two circle. The Explorers had much of the better of the play from there and finished the first frame with a 12-3 edge in shots.

La Salle broke the game open in the second period as Schneider completed a natural hat trick in a span of exactly four minutes to make it a 4-0 game with 6:04 left in the period.

The seventh seeded Cahillites (10-10) rallied briefly when Brandon Finnimore scored 23 seconds into the third period but Schneider answered with his fourth goal of the night just 66 seconds later before Hannon, Max Maddallo, and Dan Dolan added additional goals.

Tempers flared with 8:33 left in the game and four players were caught up in the ensuing altercation. Roman’s Brennan Whittaker drew a major penalty for fighting plus an automatic game misconduct. His teammate Andrew Hotolitz was booked for two minutes for head contact plus a 10-minute misconduct. Maddalo along with the Explorers’ Jake Armstrong were also received minor penalties plus misconducts for head contact.

La Salle finished with a 42-15 edge in shots.

In other Class AAA Flyers Cup quarterfinals
#1 Holy Ghost Prep 8 #8 Bishop Shanahan 0
#5 Father Judge 6 #4 Malvern Prep 2
#3 St. Joseph’s Prep 3, #6 Cardinal O’Hara 2

The semifinals will match La Salle against St. Joseph’s Prep and Holy Ghost Prep against Father Judge, Those games are tentatively set for next Wednesday or Thursday.

Roman Catholic 0 0 1—1
La Salle 1 3 4—8
First-period goals: David Kimmel (L) from Keenan Schneider and Andrew Budzynski, 5:43;
Second-period goals: Schneider (L) from Jake Hannon and David Kimmel, 5:56; Schneider from Kimmel, 6:45; Schneider (L) from Jake Hannon and Kimmel, 9:56.
Third-period goals: Brandon Finnimore (RC) unassisted, :23; Schneider (L) from Kimmel, 1:29; Hannon (L) from Kimmel and Schneider, 5:46; Max Maddalo (L) from Jake Armstrong and Collin Keiser, 7:14; Dan Dolan (L) from Francis Ford, 14:56.
Shots: Roman Catholic 15, LaSalle 42; Saves: Michael Smith (RC) 34, Aidan McCabe (L) 14

Flyers Cup Continues

The 41st Flyers Cup tournament continues Wednesday night with four Class A quarterfinal games. All four games will be played ar Ice Line in West Goshen Township

 West Chester East 5  Lower Dauphin 3

Hershey 4, Strath Haven 0  

 West Chester Bayard Rustin 4 Unionville 1

Palmyra 4 Springfield Delco 1

Semifinals on Monday at Ice Line

1 West Chester East vs 5 Hershey   6:15

2 Pamyra vs 3 Bayard Rustin           8:15

 

The Class AA quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday

1 Central Bucks South vs 8 Boyertown 6:20 at Hatfield Ice

4 North Penn vs 5 Downingtown West 8:30 at Hatfield Ice

3 Perkionen Valley vs 6 Council Rock South 6:15 at ice Line

10 Pennridge vs 2 Haverford 6:30 at Skatium

Winners to semifinals on March 11 or 12

 

The Class AAA quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday

1 Holy Ghost Prep vs 8 Bishop Shanahan  6:30 at Grundy Arena

4 Malvern Prep vs 5 Father Judge 8:15 at Ice Line

3 St. Joseph’s Prep vs 6 Cardinal O’Hara 8:45 at Skatium

2 La Salle vs 7 Roman Catholic   7:30 at Hatfield Ice

Winners to semifinals on March 11 or 12

 

La Salle 4, Holy Ghost Prep 1

BRISTOL—Few things are more impressive or imposing than a goaltender standing tall. Aidan McCabe did just that for La Salle Wednesday afternoon to help the Explorers successfully defend its Founders Cup title. The senior netminder stopped 30 of the 31 shots he saw as La Salle bested Holy Ghost Prep 4-1 at Grundy Arena to retain the championship of the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference.

The Explorers (15-13), who have won six of their last seven games will carry an abundance of momentum with then into next Thursday’s opening round of the Class AAA Flyers Cup where they are seeded second behind the Firebirds (15-5-1).

lasalle_holyghost-1.jpg

LaSalle captains Nathan Benner (L) and Ryan Ferry accept the Founders Cup from APAC Commissioner Jim Britt (photo by Liz Diretto)

Holy Ghost Prep, the top seed in the APAC playoffs, had the better of the play in the early going; at one time they had an 8-1 edge in shots, but McCabe kept them at bay and the second-seeded Explorers broke through at the 5:15 mark when David Kimmel took a shot from the left point, a single stride inside the blue line that beat Firebird netminder Sean Joyce. Keenan Schneider made it 2-0 with 56 seconds left in a period that saw McCabe make 13 saves.

“We had a good warmup,” McCabe said, “and we were doing a good job of keeping the shots to the outside so I could see the puck and track it in.”

Senior forward Ryan Ferry, one of La Salle’s captains, said McCabe’s early efforts energized his teammates. “McCabe has been good all year,” he said. “I expect nothing less.”

The Firebirds took advantage of an extended power play to score the only goal of the second period after the Explorers’ Chris Wnek and Kimmel drew back-back-penalties. Byron Hartley took a shot from the right circle that Dan Behr tipped past McCabe at the 11:15 mark.

But that was all the offense the hosts could generate. No one was more impressed with McCabe’s performance than Holy Ghost Prep assistant coach John Seravalli, who took charge behind the bench in the absence of Gump Whiteside, who missed the game because of illness.

“He made every good save,” Seravalli said. “He kept his rebounds intact. They blocked shots when we got shots off and he made great saves.”

David Brunner extended LaSalle’s lead with a goal at the 8:28 mark of the third period. Schneider scored his second goal of the game into an empty net with 25 seconds remaining.

Ferry noted that it took time for this year’s team to meld. “We just got closer as a team,” he said. “We had a lot of young kids on our team this year, a loot of seniors that were on JV last year so we didn’t know each other that well. We got a lot closer, started understanding how to play with reach other, and got s lot more chemistry.”

Ice Chips—La Salle will face Roman Catholic next Thursday in its Flyers Cup opener while the Firebirds will go against Bishop Shanahan. The Firebirds had a 31-25 edge in shots.

La Salle 2 0 2—4
Holy Ghost Prep 0 1 0—1
First-period goals: Collin Keiser (L) unassisted, 5:15 (sh); Keenan Schneider (L) from David Kimmel, 15:04.
Second-period goal: Dan Behr (HGP) from Byron Hartley and Evan Mudrick, 11;15 (pp)
Third-period goals: David Bruner (L) from Collin Keiser, 8:28; Schneider (L) unassisted, 15:35 (en).
Shots: La Salle 25, Holy Ghost Prep 31; Saves: Aidan McCabe (L) 30, Sean Joyce (HGP)) 21

 

 

Updated Playoff Schedule

Wednesday, February 26

4:00 APAC Founders Cup Final: La Salle vs Holy Ghost Prep at Grundy Arena

At Hatfield Ice

6:30 SHSHL Class AA Semifinal C.B. South vs. Neshaminy

8:30 SHSHL Class AA Semifinal North Penn vs C.R. South

At Revolution Ice Gardens

7:20 SHSHL Class A Semifinal Plymouth Whitemarsh vs. Truman

9:00 SHSHL Class A Semifinal Hatboro-Horsham vs. Wissahickon

Thursday, February 27

6:30 SHSHL Class AA Final at Hatfield Ice

8:30 SHSHL Class A Final at Hatfield Ice

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La Salle 5 St. Joseph’s Prep 2

HATFIELD— Having just played each other 72 hours previously, La Salle and St, Joseph’s Prep picked up where they left off Monday afternoon. The result was an intense, grind-it-out Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference semifinal that saw the Explorers prevail 5-2 at Hatfield Ice.

Second-seeded La Salle (14-13) which has now won five of its last six games, will face top seed Holy Ghost Prep for the Founders Cup Wednesday afternoon at Grundy Arena (time TBA).

La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner was not surprised by the tone of the afternoon. “Honestly, I thought that was the way it was going to be,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a tight game. That’s what i would expect. That’s the way it’s going to be down the stretch.”

Nate Benner scorers twice for the Explorers to send them into Wednesday’s final. “There were no skill goals today,” he said. “It was just rebounds and deflections, get it to the net, second and third opportunities. That’s what comes with Therese kinds of games.”

The Hawks got things started at 5:46 of the first period when Michael Urbani scored a power-play goal on a shot from midway between the top of the two circled that stayed along the ice and beat La Salle netminder Aidan McCabe on his stick (right) side. The Explorers’ response came just 23 seconds later when Chris Wnek beat Andrew Custer from after a dash down the left wing. Benner put La Salle in front with 35 seconds left in the opening period.

The second period was scoreless. Benner scored his second goal of the game 4:22 into the third frame to restore La Sale’s two-goal lead but Paulo Colavita’s goal with 6:11 left in regulation got the Hawks (11-13) back into the game.

It took LaSalle just 61 seconds to respond. Nick Astolfi restored the Explorers’ two-goal lead before Nolan Woundenberg added an empty net goal with 1:14 remaining.

“We’ve got to bring a solid (48) minutes,” said St. Joseph’s Prep assistant coach Rich Black. “We played a great seven minutes. We came out hard, we were moving … We just need to put together a full game giants these guys.”

Top seed Holy Ghost Prep defeated Malvern Prep 4-1 in the other semifinal. La Salle will be seeded second in the Class AAA Flyers Cup and will face seventh-seeded Roman Catholic on March 5 at 7:30 at Hatfield Ice in a quarterfinal game. The Hawks, who are seeded third, will face sixth-seeded Cardinal O’Hara in a quarterfinal game the same night at the Skatium. Game time will be 8:45. The Explorers have won all four meetings over the Hawks this season but two of the four required overtime.

St. Joseph’s Prep 1 0 1—2
La Salle 2 0 3—5
First-period goals: Michael Urbani (SJP) from Austin Amato, 5:46 (pp); Chris Wnek (L) from Francis Ford, 6:09; Nathan Benner (L) from Jake Armstrong and Ryan Ferry, 15:25;
Third-period goals; Benner (L) from Armstrong and Colin Keiser. 4:22; Nolan Woudenberg L) from Andrew Budzynski and Aidan McCabe, 14:46 (en).
Shots: St. Joseph’s Prep 27, La Salle 31: Saves; Andrew Custer (SJP) 26; Aidan McCabe (L) 25

APAC Playoff Semifinals Set

The Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference playoffs will get underway on Monday with a pair of semifinal games.

Top-seeded Holy Ghost Prep will host fourth seed Malvern Prep in a 4:00 game at Grundy Arena. The other Monday semifinal will match St. Joseph’s Prep and La Salle. The  site and time of that game will depend on the result of Friday’s regular season finale between the Hawks and the Explorers. The winner will be the second seed and the loser third.

If La Salle wins, the semifinal will be played at Hatfield Ice with a 4:10 scheduled start. If the Hawks prevail, the semifinal will be played at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Arena with a 4 p.m. start (LATE UPDATE)

The Founders Cup championship game will be played Wednesday, February 26 with the site and time to be determined.

The results of the Founders Cup playoffs will not impact the seedings for the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament, which will be announced Sunday night.