April 23, 1989
William Tennent goaltender Scott Shaw had no reason to be embarrassed about his performance in Tennent’s 4-0 loss to Meadville in the PIAA Class AAA state championship ice hockey game on April 15. He had kicked, gloved, blocked, and deflected 39 shots, twice as many as his teammates were able to get off at his Meadville counterpart, and the final goal of the game was scored into an empty net after coach Joe Paul pulled his goalie late in the game. Although there had to be some disappointment in the state championship game, there was no denying the brilliance of Shaw’s performance as Tennent swept through the Flyers Cup tournament. Shaw won the Bobby Clarke Most Valuable Player Award and was named to the Bauer all-tournament team as he carried a team that was outshot in every game in the tournament. He stymied Malvern Prep in a 5-3 win in the semifinals with 44 saves. In the process, he neutralized Malvern’s Derek Amoroso, holding him to two goals. That may not sound like an achievement, but Amoroso set two Flyers Cup records when he scored seven goals in a single game and 13 for the tournament. Then, in the final game against Conestoga, which had tied Tennent 3-3 in the round-robin portion of the tournament, he came up just as big with 40 saves in a 3-1 victory. His save percentage for the tournament was a scintillating 91 percent. Shaw is bound for Kent State University in Ohio on a hockey scholarship and is the first player to move on to a Division I program in Paul’s four years at the school. Although he played in only eight of Tennent’s 15 regular-season games, he started every game in the Panthers’ tournament run. Shaw plays for the Little Flyers, too, and Paul said he was happy to let his star pupil take a few games off when the schedules conficted to give junior Tim Caum some time in the nets.
Temperament has a lot to do with Shaw’s success, according to Paul. “He plays his best when he’s a little bit angry. A little bit aggressive. He doesn’t have a cocky style but a Show me you can beat me style,” Paul said. Until Meadville, the Penguins Cup winners (emblematic of hockey supremacy in Western Pennsylvania), came to town, nobody had been able to show that to Shaw.
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