CASTLE SHANNON, Pa. — The Upper St. Clair Panthers clinched the No. 2 seed in the Class-3A playoffs with a 5-3 win over the Pine-Richland Rams on Thursday at Ice Castle Arena. Mitchell Geinzer and Colton Shiry each scored two goals in the winning effort.
Devin Rohrich opened the scoring just under the halfway point of the first period with a power play goal to give Upper St. Clair a 1-0 lead. Shiry added a second goal with just 36 seconds remaining to put the Panthers up by two.
Pine-Richland managed a power play of their own on the mirror side of the first break just 51 seconds into the second period. In an attempt to get a second power play goal later, Mitchell Geinzer took the puck from the Rams and promptly put it past Danny Stauffer for the short handed goal to give Upper St. Clair a commanding 3-1 lead. Shiry stretched that to 4-1 with a power play goal with 1:01 remaining in the second period.
Geinzer finished the scoring for the Panthers with yet another power play goal just a minute and a half into the third period before Pine-Richland’s rally attempt began. Alex Erlain put a puck past Panther netminder Kyle Rohrich at 3:11 of the third period to cut the lead to 5-2. Connor Salsbury added Pine-Richland’s second power play goal of the night at 10:13, but a Rohrich shut the door the rest of the way to seal the 5-3 win for Upper St. Clair.
Upper St. Clair was 3-for-4 on the power play and added a short handed goal. Pine-Richland was 2-for-4 on the power play.
Kyle Rohrich got the win between the pipes for the Panthers, stopping 36 of 39 shots. Daniel Stauffer stopped 19 of 24 for the Rams in the losing effort.
Upper St. Clair will finish the regular season against Canon-McMillan on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at Printscape Arena at 9 p.m.
Pine-Richland will finish their regular season with a game against North Allegheny at 9 p.m. at Baierl Ice Complex on Monday, Feb. 24 and at Bethel Park on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 9 p.m. at the Spencer Family YMCA.
MAJOR FOCUS: UPPER ST. CLAIR GETS REVENGE FOR 2019 PENGUINS CUP LOSS
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