April 3, 1989
Central Bucks, William Tennent, Malvern Prep and Conestoga all advanced to the Final Four of the Flyers Cup, which will continue tonight and tomorrow with 7:45 p.m. faceoffs at the Havertown Skatium. William Tennent, Northern Scholastic Hockey League champion, will meet Malvern Prep, Eastern Hockey League champion, tonight. Central Bucks, Suburban Hockey League champ, will meet Inter-County Hockey League champion Conestoga tomorrow. Central Bucks and William Tennent advanced out of the Orange Division of the Flyers Cup and ousted the Lower Bucks Hockey League champion, Bishop Egan. Central Bucks, the Orange Division No. 1 seed, beat Tennent (8-5) on Tuesday and Egan (9-4) on Wednesday in the round robin quarterfinals. Tennent, the Orange Division No. 2 seed, lost to the Blazers but defeated Egan (7- 2) Monday to advance. Malvern Prep and Conestoga advanced out of the Black Division and delivered the knockout blow to Council Rock, runner up in the Suburban Hockey League. Malvern, the Black Division No. 1 seed, won both games as the Friars won big over both Conestoga (12-5) and Council Rock (10-3). Conestoga, the Black Division No. 2 seed, advanced to the final round with a 3-1 win over Council Rock. “This should be a terrific Flyers Cup.” Central Bucks head coach Andy Richards said. “All of the teams still in the tournament are superior hockey teams, and when you consider that an excellent Council Rock team isn’t still playing, says quite a bit about the quality of play of the teams that made it to the semifinals.”
The first Orange Division quarter final contest featured William Tennent’s 7-2 win over Bishop Egan. The Panthers fell behind Egan, 1-0, in the first period as Rich Hevener scored for the Eagles. But Tennent tied the score in the waning moments of the first period on a goal by defenseman Sean Murray. “For some reason we haven’t been playing our best hockey early in the game,” “Tennent head coach Joe Paul said. “But we have played really well in the second period.” The Panthers did dominate play the next period as they scored five goals. Mike Lang scored twice for Tennent, while Paul Gregg, Ken Knaus and Dana Christ each scored once. The Eagles and the Panthers each tallied once in the third period as Christ scored his second for Tennent and Mike DiSantis scored late in the game for Egan. “Our game plan at the beginning was to try and skate with them,” Paul said. “But once the game got a period old, I changed strategy and decided to be more physical with them. I think that has to be our style.” The second game of the Orange series matched Tennent with Central Bucks in an 8-5 Blazers win that both coaches considered to be un- characteristic of playoff hockey. “The first period was all Central Bucks, and the second period was all William Tennent,” Richards said. “You usually don’t see a game dominated like that by either team in a playoff situation. The last period, though, was great playoff hockey.” Central Bucks stoned the Panthers with 6 consecutive goals in the first period and led after the first 15 minutes, 6-1. Mike Henke and Skip Miller each scored twice in the period, while Steve Richards and Tom Cole scored solo goals for the Blazers. Christ scored a late goal for the Panthers to avert a first-period shutout. “We were stunned, but our kids showed a lot of character,” Paul said. “The bench never said a negative word, and the kids just went to work. I moved Greg Lovern from offense to defense, and I put all our scoring strength on one line.”
Tennent then controlled the game in the second period and scored 3 goals to close the gap after two peri- ods to 6-4. Mike Lang, Paul Gregg, and Lance LaTare were the goal scorers for the Panthers. Lang opened the scoring in the third period for Tennent to make it a 6-5 Blazers lead, and the game stayed that way until there was a faceoff in the Tennent offensive zone with 1 minute, 30 seconds left in the game. Coach Paul decided to use the opportunity to add an extra skater, pull his goaltender and go for the tying goal. However, the Blazers controlled the faceoff and Richards scored into an open net to make the score 7-5. Cole scored the final Central Bucks goal, also into an open net, to end the scoring. “When we left the ice, we told the Tennent kids not to worry, we would beat Egan and send them to the Flyers Cup,” Richards said. “And we were able to do just that.” Central Bucks led Egan, 2-1, after the first period on goals by Richards and Cole and blew the game open with a 5-goal barrage in the second period to take a 7-2 lead. Henke, Richards, James Grassmeter, Rich Rubilla and Bill Norcross all scored in the second period for the Blazers. Richards and Henke scored for Cen- tral Bucks in the third period to conclude the scoring. “Of the teams that are left, I guess you would have to say that Malvern has the best team,” Richards said. “I hope Tennent can beat them, but if they can’t, I wouldn’t mind rolling the dice against them in the finals. Of course, we have to beat Conestoga first and Council Rock didn’t get that done. It’s a one-game season now.”
CREDIT: The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Scott Huff – Special to the Inquirer
