1980 Patriots Crunch Ryan, Malvern Overtimes GA

The Flyers Cup Tournament got underway at the Class of ’23 Rink in the University of Penn on Tuesday night. It was a double-elimination round with Archbishop Carroll and Malvern Prep winning their respective games against the champions from the Lower Bucks and Suburban Leagues. The first game pitted Carroll against Archbishop Ryan, who came into the game with a 21-0-0 record. The Pats had a 20-4-1 record, but were still favored to win the match, and did 8-4. Malvern struggled against Germantown Academy, 4-3, in overtime. There were special introductions of all the players, followed by the ceremonial dropping of the first puck by Flyers scout and goaltender coach Bernie Parent. When the game began, Carroll’s Scott Chamness took advantage of the idea of the tournament spotlighting the team, as he proceeded to put on another offensive display, this time with four goals and two assists, in Carroll’s romp. Carroll also relied on a strong performance by defenseman Carmen DiGiandomenico, who played almost every minute of the game, and should become a candidate for the “Borje Salming Award” for perseverance. Although Carroll was favored to win this confrontation, the Raiders gave the Patriots a run for their money. After the Pats came out storming in the first period with a 2-0 lead, the Raiders reassembled during the break between the two periods. In the second stanza, Ryan was beating Carroll at its own game, dumping the puck in and sending two men after it. Ryan’s first goal at 3:30 was a power play by Steve Engle, which sparked the Raiders and gave them momentum. Ryan added another three goals in the span of 1:58 to take the 4-2 lead. Needless to say, Ryan’s fans went crazy. “They were making the defensemen work,” explained DiGiandomenico, who was paired with Phil Chamness on the blue line. “That was the first time any team was able to do that to us all year. “All throughout the second, they dominated us,” explained Carroll’s coach, Dave Callaghan.

“I thought we were playing tag; they had four guys on one side, and we had three on the other. I told them, ‘Let’s score the first goal, then tie it, and take it from there.” Take it from there is an understatement for what the Patriots did, as Scott Chamness led the way with a blistering slapshot from the right wing boards that eluded Ryan’s goalie John Stella at the 29-second mark, to tie it at 4-4. It was unassisted. That gave some life to Carroll, as the Pats came back 28 seconds later with Jeff Arnold’s shot bouncing off Stella and into the net to give Carroll a 5-4 lead, with DiGiandomenico getting the assist. “We talked about how we had to start playing our game,” said Scott Chamness. We realized that we had to break up, the middle. We came with a goal, then another, and then exploded. Our guys really put in the effort in the third period. The Patriots added three more goals to ice the victory and advance to the best-of-three game series for the Flyers Cup. “It seemed that in the second period, we felt the fatigue of playing after these games,” explained Erik Madigan. “We had to take shots from everywhere in the third period, and the goalie (Stella didn’t know where the next one was coming from. “At this point, there is no stopping us now,” said Jim Loftus. “We were in awe of the tournament first, but we settled down and regrouped.” In the second game of the doubleheader, Malvern was up against Germantown Academy, the winner of the Suburban League championship. The GA Patriots brought their 28-0-0 record against Malvern’s 20-4-0 mark. Although Malvern was expected to edge out GA, it did it in its typical style of sudden death overtime, by pulling out a 4-3 corker in the extra session. Both teams had played evenly throughout the entire game, with good skating and positional play. The two goalies, Malvern’s Drew Parvin and GA’s Gregg Hinkson put on a brilliant display of goaltending to prevent the game from being a shootout contest.