Tag: Mark Bobko

North Penn 4 Downingtown East 3

It was a contest of championship final caliber. Over the course of 51 minutes at Hatfield Ice Arena Thursday night, North Penn and Downingtown East both proved themselves worthy of playing for a Flyers Cup championship.

But only the Knights will get that opportunity.

Nolan Shingle’s goal with 3:43 left in regulation, his second goal in a span of 88 seconds, got the Knight past the Cougars 4-3 in a Class AA semifinal. The goal was Shingle’s third of the game and put the second-seeded Knights (19-3) into net Wednesday’s final against top-seeded Council Rock South (8:45 at Hatfield Ice). The third-seeded Cougars close their season at 15-7.

In the parlance of pugilism, both team got off the canvas. North Penn took a 2-0 lead into the third period on the strength of a power-play goal from Cole Pluck 11:49 into the first-period, which was followed by Shingle’ first goal of the night 7:48 into the second frame

But the Cougars survived those heavy blows and counterpunched. Ryan Nichols got Downingtown East on the scoreboard 4:19 into the third period and Anderson Frain tied the game with 6:44 left in regulation.

When Nichols scored his second goal of the game with 4:36 left in regulation the Cougars appeared to have the upper hand.

Shingle however did not agree with that line of reasoning. He tied the game 3:43 left on the clock before delivering the game winner that started out as a breakaway. Downingtown East goaltender Lucas Fleuty made the initial save on Sam Norton before Shingle followed up.

“Downingtown East is a great hockey team,” said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. “Hats off to them, they’re well coached. We knew, going into the third, up 2-0 that it probably wasn’t going to end 2-0. I didn’t necessarily want to get down 3-2 but I’m proud of the boys. They continued to work, continued to battle.”

Downingtown East coach Mark Bobko praised his team’s resilience.

“Our guy showed a lot of heart,” he said. “Being down 2-0 going into the third, fighting back, and getting a lead.

“What I was telling them in the locker room was in games of this magnitude the margin of error is so tight that if you don’t expend every ounce of energy and focus it can tip the other way just as easily and that’s kind of what we saw here tonight.”

Downingtown East 0 0 3—3

North Penn 1 1 2—4

ICSHL All-Stars Meet

Good hockey for a good cause was the dish that was served at Ice Line on New Year’s Day. Teams representing the Central and Ches-Mont League squared off as part of the ICSHL’s traditional New Year’s card of All-Star games.

The Ches-Mont-Central League matchup was billed as the Hunger Game, with receipts from ticket sales earmarked for donation to an area food bank. Ice Line provided the ice slot free of charge and the two referees who worked the game donated their services.

Toby Myers of Lower Merion scored what proved to be the winning goal 58 seconds into the third period to give the Central League a 4-3 win.

 Myers also blocked a shot in the closing seconds to conclude an entertaining 51 minutes of hockey that saw the Central League overcome a 2-0 first-period deficit. It was the senior defenseman’s second consecutive All-Star Game appearance.

“It was pretty cool,” he said. “[The All-Star Game] is always nice. Couldn’t get the ‘W’ last year. So, it was good to win this one.”

While the affair lacked some of the physicality of a typical regular-season contest the contingent of 44 All-Stars worked hard at both ends of the ice.

Haverford’s John Povey was behind the Central League bench along with Steve Mescanti from Penncrest and Chris Francis from Harriton.

“It’s always a good game,” Povey said. “We’ve had overtime games, we’ve had games come down like this one, one goal. As far as I can remember it’s always a tight, one goal, or two-goal game.”

Goals from Hunter Haas (West Chester Henderson) and  Lucas Mott (Kennett) gave the Ches-Mont side a 2-0 lead with 2:24 left in the first period.

The Central League responded in the second frame with goals from Stephen Sucher from Radnor, Nash Grant from Penncrest, and Jake Heston from Springfield-Delco to take the lead in the final period.

Myers’ goal extended his team’s lead and as it turned out, the goal was needed. With 1:57 left in the third period, Blake Platz from Henderson was hooked from behind on a breakaway. Jake Rotwitt of Conestoga stopped the ensuing penalty shot to keep it a 4-2 game.

The Ches-Mont wasn’t finished. Brody Matthews scored with 58 seconds to go to make it a one-goal game but his teammates couldn’t come up with the tying goal.

Downingtown East coach Mark Bobko coached the Ches-Mont All-Stars.

“Both teams came out and played hard,” he said. “It’ a friendly game but the effort was there.”

Other games on the program included a girls’ all-star game, a matchup between the Pioneer Athletic Conference and the PCL/Prep Division, and twi junior varsity games.

Central League 0 3 1—4

Ches-Mont League 2 0 1—3