REGULAR SEASON
Dec. 3: Pine-Richland defeated Upper St. Clair 8-3 at Baierl Ice Complex
Jordan Rosenbaum scored 50 seconds into the contest to give the Rams an early lead that held until Anthony Carone recorded a power-play goal late to send the two teams deadlocked 1-1 at the first intermission. Quinn Giacobbe scored at 4:17 of the second to give the Panthers their only lead of the game, but a goal by William Studt and two by Jared Lindauer handed the Rams a 4-2 lead heading into to the ice-cut. Pine-Richland came alive in the final seven minutes of the contest, as Brandon Kashur, Jack Tyndall, Youri Prokesch and Ian Voit recorded goals. Carone netted his second of the game between the Kashur and Tyndall tallies.
Kyle Rohrich stopped 21-of-29 shots in the contest for the Panthers and Daniel Stauffer recorded 28 saves for the Rams.
LAST WEEK
Pine Richland defeated Greater Latrobe
Upper St. Clair defeated Franklin Regional
ODDS AND ENDS
SCORING
Upper St. Clair boasts the top two scorers in double-A as Devin Rohrich and Anthony Carone each eclipsed the 50-point mark. Rohrich led the classification with 33 goals on the year. The Panthers finished No. 3 in team offense, scoring 5.37 goals per game in the regular season. Pine-Richland finished No. 2 at 5.74 GPG, and although not having anyone finish higher than 14th in scoring, they had six players at over a point-per-game pace with at least two-thirds of the season played. The Rams led ‘AA’ in team defense, allowing only 1.63 GA per game, and the Panthers finished tenth, allowing 4.05 GA per game.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Upper St. Clair was especially lethal with the extra attacker, capitalizing on 31.5% on the second-highest number of opportunities (89), good enough for No. 2. Pine-Richland finished right behind them at No. 3 with a 29.1% success rate. On the kill, the Rams finished No. 3, stopping all but eight opponents opportunities at a 87.7% clip. Upper St. Clair had to kill the least number of penalties on the season and had trouble doing so, finishing 11th-of-14 teams with a 72.2% success rate.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN
Pine-Richland can score goals in bunches, and Upper St. Clair can match them goal-for-goal in the category. The major difference is that Pine-Richland can stop pucks against any team out there, and that is a glaring weakness in the Panthers camp. Experience is on the Rams side here, but the Panthers have no reason to be alarmed – they are a young and hungry team that has put themselves in the same position that the Rams were last year, albeit deeper in the post-season. Upper St. Clair is not out of this one, but will have to stop the most-balanced team in double-A in the entire state as well as stay out of the box.
Verdict: Pine-Richland has shown time and time again that they are in a different class than their opponents. Upper St. Clair has an uphill battle, but hasn’t ran away from a fight yet either. This will be a fun matchup that has the potential to be a high-scoring affair.
