Pine-Richland's Ice Hockey Season Ends with Loss to Peters Township

Taylor Cox and Trevor Recktenwald each scored a hat trick Wednesday night to lead Peters Township to an 8-1 win over Pine-Richland at the Iceoplex at Southpointe.

The win permits Peters Township to advance to the PIHL semifinals next week at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

Pine-Richland's loss eliminates the Rams, who finished their regular season at 9-10-1 and won their first-round game over Erie Cathedral Prep on Monday night.

Despite the final 8-1 score, the Indians and Rams played a tight first period.

Cox got the Indians on the board at 10:42 when he skated into the Rams’ zone and unleashed a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that sailed over goalie Grant Goldberg’s right shoulder.A little more than a minute later, Recktenwald gave Peters Township a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period.

“The first period is always tight,” said Peters head coach Rick Tingle. “It’s the first period of the playoffs and everybody’s been waiting for like a month. Our season’s been pretty well over since January, and our guys have been waiting to get it going.”

Pine-Richland head coach Mike Bagnato said the Rams had an opportunity to get on the scoreboard in the first, but could not capitalize and convert their play into a goal.

“A goal to cut the lead to 2-1 could have changed the momentum a little bit and put them back on their heels, but Peters is a very good hockey team and you can’t let them get too far ahead,” he said.

Cox scored again at the 9:47 mark of the second period when he cut across the goal crease and lifted a backhander past Goldberg, and then Alex Dagnal added another goal 25 seconds later to stake the Indians to a 4-0 lead.

The Rams got on the scoreboard at the 7:14 mark on a power play goal by Scott McNalney, but Ben Dachille added another goal for the Indians before the close of the period and the intermission.

Peters Township wasted no time in the third as Recktenwald scored his second and third goals of the night at 14:12 and 10:54 respectively, and Cox completed his hat trick with 5:36 remaining in the game.

“My first hat trick and it came in the playoffs," said Cox. "It can’t get any better than that. You try and be a leader on the team and do what you can. We’re not just a team, we’re more like a family and we just want to get to the finals.”

“It was a good team effort tonight,” said Recktenwald. “We’ve been waiting to get to the playoffs and I hope we can keep it going.”

Bagnato said despite the loss he believes the Rams may benefit for seasons to come.

“We’re a young team, and we’ll be a young team again next year," he said. "I’m proud of these guys, and a few weeks from now they’ll know what kind of a good season they had. It’s no shame to lose to Peters because they’re probably the best team in high school hockey,” he said.

Tingle said the semifinal game next week could be the toughest game the Indians have played all season.

“The semifinal is usually the toughest game. In our history, the semifinal has been the toughest game to win, so we’re not taking anything lightly at all.”