BY PAUL BURIAK
The Bishop McCort hockey team made the most of its power-play opportunities Monday night and came away with a 5-3 PIHL Class A quarterfinal win over crosstown rival Westmont at the Cambria County War Memorial.
The Crimson Crushers (16-6-1) scored a pair of power-play goals to erase an early 1-0 deficit, and McCort converted 3-of-5 total chances with the man advantage compared to
2-of-6 for Westmont (15-8-1).
“We played well once we stayed out of the box,” said McCort coach John Bradley, whose team advances to the Penguin Cup semifinals.
“After taking three penalties in the first six minutes, we settled down. We were patient on our power play, and played good team defense on our penalty kill.”
The Crushers went up 3-1 heading into the third period on a goal by Dane Domonkos, but the Hilltoppers pulled to within one with 11:03 remaining when Corey Schafer took a pass from Galen Dorian and beat McCort goaltender Jim Stenger from the right of the crease.
Zach Barto again put the Crushers ahead by two when he tallied his team’s third power-play goal on an assist from Domonkos at the 4:09 mark.
However, Westmont rallied in the final minute. The Hilltoppers’ Matt Ponzurick scored on a power play with just 49 seconds left in regulation to make it 4-3, but the Crushers put the game away with 13 seconds remaining when Kurtis Straw fired in an unassisted empty-net goal.
“We knew it was far from over when we were up 3-1,” Bradley said. “Westmont’s kids were going to play right to the end.”
“We don’t have to apologize for our effort,” said Westmont coach Art McQuillan. “Our kids left it all out there and played with tremendous spirit.
“Five-on-five, we had the better of the play, but we took some ill-advised penalties, and they capitalized.”
Westmont jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 6:22 mark of the first period as the Hilltoppers converted on their third power-play chance. Noah McQuillan scored on an assist from Dillon Dorian, but the Crushers tied the game just over two minutes later. Bryan Scott ripped a shot past Adam Ayre after taking a feed from Nick Pappas.
McCort then went ahead 2-1 with 8:57 left in the second period on a power-play goal by Anthony Pioli as Domonkos and Straw picked up the assists.
“When we were down 1-0, I thought we would be OK as long as we just relaxed and stayed patient on offense,” Bradley said.
“The kids worked hard and played as a team.”
McCort outshot the Hilltoppers 25-23, with Ayre and Stenger each making 20 saves.
