The race for the postseason is on for high school hockey teams
With less than a month left in the PIHL regular season, squads are ready to make their final push to reach the Penguins Cup playoffs.
Locally, Quaker Valley and West Allegheny are best positioned to earn one of the six playoff spots from the Class 1A Gold Division. The top two teams receive byes. The Quakers (11-3-1) trail leader North Hills (15-0-1) by eight points, 31-23. McDowell (11-4-1) also has 23 points. Montour (11-3-0, 22 points) and North Catholic (10-4-1, 21) are just ahead of the Indians (9-5-2, 20), who sit in fifth, in front of Avonworth (8-7-1, 17). Moon (6-7-0) is in eighth place with 12 points, while Blackhawk (3-11-2) is in ninth with eight points. Beaver (1-12-0) has two points.
Central Valley is the lone area Division 2 team. The Warriors (1-13-1) are last in the Gold Division with three points.
Quaker Valley hopes to get back to the postseason again. The Quakers, who own five Penguins Cup titles (2006, ’08, ’12, ’13,’14), reached the Penguins Cup semifinals last season. Heading into Sunday’s all-star break, Quaker Valley was in a good position, but the team doesn’t have much margin for error in its final five games.
“We’re pushing to get the highest possible seed. We’re in good shape now, but four of our last five games are against good teams and we’re trying to finish ahead of three of them in the standings,” Quaker Valley coach Kevin Quinn said. “I think we have to win out, but that’s easier said than done.”
The Quakers hope to lean on their stingy defense. They’ve allowed 32 goals, which is tied for the fewest in Class 1A.
“We have a good defense and goaltending,” Quinn said. “We’re really young on the defensive side and really young, overall. When we stick to the system, we restrict opportunities and have done a good job defensively.”
Goaltenders Landon Buterbaugh (8-4-0) and Ian Lorang (3-0-0) have been steady for the team.
“We’re a very big defensive team and we run a strict system. Defense is definitely something we strive to be good at,” QV senior forward Braedan Steffey said. “Our low goals against total has a lot to do with our goaltending. Landon and Ian have been outstanding and really held it down for us.”
Ben Carlson leads the team with 16 goals and 26 points, Quaker Valley has some balance, too, as Will Watson and Steffey (19 points), Jacob Keisel (16), Riley Moore (15), Ben McHenry (13) and Jace Vasbinder have reached double digits in points.
“We have three lines of hardworking players who can all put the puck in the net,” Steffey said. “Ben Carlson leads our team in goals and he is our captain. He always makes sure we’re shooting the puck a lot and getting rebounds.”
The Quakers, who dropped a 6-4 decision to West Allegheny last Monday, meet the Indians again during the final stretch. It’s a key game for West Allegheny, too, as it hopes to climb up the standings with only four games left on its schedule. The Indians are riding a three-game winning streak. Luke Gyergyo leads the team with 24 points, while Branden Switalski has a team-high 11 goals.
ALL-STAR WEEKEND
The PIHL held its annual all-star games Jan. 22 at the RMU Island Sports Center. Several locals were selected for the games.
In the Class 1A Group 1 game, Moon’s Noah Driscoll, Randy Sheffler, Brendan Camardese, Bradyn Woods and Ethan Klaas joined Quaker Valley’s Will Watson, Steffey, Carlson and Buterbaugh as well as West Allegheny’s Reilly Lada on the Gold Team. West Allegheny’s Maxwell Tepsic, Pasquale Hively and Gyergyo, Blackhawk’s Owen Keister, Evan Kennelly and Jake Hofer and Beaver’s Anthony Dawson were on the Blue Team.
Central Valley’s Aiden Pournaras was selected to the Blue Team in the Division 2 all-star game.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: QV and West Allegheny in mix as PIHL playoffs near
