NESHANNOCK TWP., Pa. — Neshannock got three power play goals and three points from Michael Benson and Hunter Harris to beat Morgantown, 9-1 at Hess Ice Rink on Monday and advance in the 2020 PIHL Class-B Playoffs.
The Lancers scored on two of their four man-advantage opportunities, with Tom Malvar putting a loose puck past Morgantown goaltender Blake Phillips to open the scoring with two minutes remaining in the first period.
Neshannock added on with an even-strength goal from Benson 1:01 into the second period and then a power-play goal at 4:44 when Harris scored on a feed from Matthew Ioanilli to make it 3-0.
“We’ve been working on the power play,” head coach Mark Multari said. “We were middle of the pack all year and we finally worked in practice the last couple of times, just trying to make it simple.”
One of the recent changes to the Neshannock power play unit was the addition of Benson, who moved up to point on the top unit after an injury. Benson had had a goal and two assists and was a steadying force on the Neshannock man-advantage unit.
“He had a stellar night,” Multari said. “That’s one of the best games he’s had. He’s a workhorse from the defense.”
After it was 3-0 Neshannock, Morgantown answered with an even-strength goal at 7:38 of the second by captain Turner Lawrence, but the Mohawks made four more trips to the penalty box in the middle frame to provide Neshannock with plenty of extra-attacker opportunities.
The Lancers cashed in on the power play for the third time at 14:07 of the second when Davey Cochenour scored with Ioanilli once again assisting.
Morgantown killed off a two-man advantage that spanned the end of the second and begging of the third periods, but two periods of shorthanded chasing in addition to a tilted ice at even strength caused the Mohawks to run out of gas at even strength.
“I told them in between the ice cut, ‘your conditioning is really paying off now,'” Multari said. “I’ve been telling the kids for years, if you skate hard and attack and attack and attack, kind of like the Penguins did in the Stanley Cup years, you go after teams, they’re going to make mistakes.”
Hunter Deal capitalized on one of those mistakes when found a loose puck sitting behind Phillips and shoveled it home at 3:43 of the third. Terence Rice buried a cross-ice feed from Harris to make it 6-1 just 36 seconds later. Benson added another on a shot from the blue line at 12:22 to really put things out of reach. Teddy Saad and Nolan Earl added late-game tallies for the Lancers
Phillips was busy all night at both even strength and while his Morgantown teammates were shorthanded, finishing with 43 saves on 59 shots.
Riley Mastowski turned aside 21 of 22 to earn the win for Neshannock.
The Lancers will advance to the PIHL Class-B Semifinals on Monday, March 9 at RMU Island Sports Center. They will face the winner of Burrell and Carrick.
GALLERY
