HARMAR TWP, Pa. — The IUP Crimson Hawks (7-4, 3-1 CHMA) used a Dom Glavach hat trick, including the overtime winner, to defeat the Pitt Panthers (7-3-1, 2-0-1 CHMA) 6-5 Saturday at Alpha Ice Complex.
The Panthers were coming off a huge win over Duquesne the night before, 11-0, while the hawks had squeezed by Mercyhurst, 5-4. Before the game, IUP head coach Joe Honzo downplayed the success Pitt has had this season.
“We don’t really worry about what they’re doing. We want to be hard to play against…play physical. We haven’t played our best hockey yet.”
If they Hawks were saving their best hockey for Pitt, it worked.
Glavach floated with the puck between the circles and finally let a wrist shot rip that found its way behind Panther goaltender Tristen Canter just 1:20 into the extra period. The Hawks took advantage of a five minute power play from a Dan Larkin boarding major just before the end of the third period with the game knotted 5-5.
It was a tale of two periods for the first and second. Joey Ditullio got the Hawks on the board first about halfway through the first period. Zach Kutch extended the lead to 2-0 a few minutes later. Alex Crowley finally got Pitt on the board at 16:31 of the first period, but Glavach netted his first of the game 22 seconds later to keep the IUP advantage at two goals.
Pitt used an offensive onslaught in the second period to eventually tie the game, putting up 28 shots against Hawks netminder Jared Stahel. JC Bele brought the Panthers to within a goal less than two minutes into the period. After IUP Captain Gavin Cummings was sent to the box for high sticking, it only took 30 seconds for Bele to score. Then the game got interesting.
Four minutes in, a scrum broke out in front of the benches after the whistle. Jace Rearic and Jake Casto were each sent to the box for IUP with a 10-minute misconduct, along with Bernardo Vierra for the Panthers. Casto was charged with a high-sticking minor on the same play and 45 second later, Cummings went to the box again for tripping, giving the Panthers a 5-on-3 power play.
Although the two-man advantage was successfully killed by the Hawks, Austin Martz tied the game 3-3 for Pitt just 9 seconds after the minor to Cummings expired.
From there, the teams traded blows in the third period. Glavach got his second goal of the game three minutes in to take the lead again for the Hawks before Crilley notched his second at 12:22 to tie the game again. The Panthers took their first lead of the game less than a minute later after Jack Kisela lofted a puck from the blue line that snuck in. It was the first time IUP had trailed in the game. Honzo called a brief timeout to discuss the situation with his team. That conversation led to the game-tying goal from Ditullio, his second of the game, to move the game to 5-5.
“Our mindset did not change when they went up a goal,” said Glavach after the game. “We were one shot away from tying it. We went hard to the net with Ditullio, one of our bigger bodies, just bullying someone in front and it goes in the net.”
That’s when Dan Larkin was called for the boarding major on Kutch and Glavach used the extra man in overtime to end it for good, 6-5.
“It worked out that we got more ice to play with, it was 4-on-3.,” said Jamie Mauro, who had one of his two assists on that goal.
Stahel ended the night with the victory, saving 34 out of 39 shots, while his Pitt counterpart Canter saved 34 out of 40.
IUP will hot West Virginia on Thursday, Oct. 28 at S&T Bank Arena and compete in an exhibition against NCAA D3 Chatham on Saturday, Oct. 30. Pitt will travel to play at Mercyhurst on Friday, Oct. 29 and at John Carroll on Saturday, Oct. 30.
MAJOR FOCUS: GLAVACH HAT TRICK GIVES IUP 6-5 WIN OVER PITT
