April 1, 1991
Roman Bussetti scored a hat trick at the Face-Off Circle Thursday night to key Council Rock to a 3-2 victory over defending Flyers Cup champion Malvern Prep in the first game of their best-of-three Flyers Cup Tier I championship series. The series will continue tomorrow with a 7:45 pm. faceoff at the Skatium in Haverford. The third game, if necessary, will be played on Thursday at the Skatium in a 7:45 pm. start. “If we don’t win the second game, I’m not coming to the third game,” joked Council Rock coach Paul Gilligan. “I’ve spent enough times in hockey rinks the last few weeks.” The winner of the Tier I Flyers Cup series will play again on Saturday against the Tier 1 Penguins Cup champion from western Pennsylvania. That contest will be held at the Viking Rink in King of Prussia and will begin at 2pm. “We knew going into this series that we would have to beat them in their building,” said Gilligan, as Malvern played its Eastern League games at the Skatium. “But really, when we get to this level of play, there shouldn’t be any home-ice advantage. “We know what we have to do to beat them. We have to hit them hard and make them work for everything they get.” Council Rock and Malvern were tied at 1-1 after the first period, and the Indians trailed, 2-1, after the second period. “Our defense and our goaltending kept us in the game,” said Gilligan. “If Tom Kratchwell doesn’t play a fantastic game, we’re in a lot of trouble. We could be down 4 or 5 goals going into the last period.” Council Rock owned the third period as Bussetti scored a tying power play goal early in the period, and scored the game-winner with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game. The swarming Indians defense limited Malvern to just 3 shots on goal in the period. For the game, the Indians outshot Malvern Prep, 19-18. “I thought we should have had a fourth goal, but the ref didn’t agree,” said Gilligan. “It would have made things a lot easier if he had allowed it.” Council Rock’s Ron Reilly appeared to have scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, but the official ruled the net was off its standard and disallowed the goal.
Council Rock had advanced to the Tier I championship with a 9-3 victory over Father Judge on Tuesday night in a game played at Face-Off “Actually we played a horrible game,” said Gilligan. “We were obviously the more talented team, but we didn’t play like it. After the first two periods we were winning, 5-3, but we were awful.” Council Rock outscored the Crusaders, 4-0, in the period to coast to the win. The Indians’ top goal scorer was Matt Hunter with a pair. Other goal scorers were Brian Green, Chad Markowitz, Eric Kratschwell, Kevin Dietch, Mike Kelly, Bob Burke and Bussetti. “The discouraging thing was that we didn’t play better the first two periods,” said Gilligan. “We scored 5 goals, but honestly, if they had a better goaltender, the score could have been 3-1 in Judge’s favor. “We got away with a win without playing our best hockey. If we had played one of the better teams, like a Germantown Academy or a Malvern, we would not have been able to win.” But the Indians collected the win and advanced to the Flyers Cup Tier I title series with Malvern.
Germantown Academy entered its Flyers Cup Tier II semifinal game with Pennsbury on Wednesday night at the Grundy Rink in Bristol short-handed, with three players suspended and an- other away on a family trip. Nevertheless, the new-look Patriots managed to defeat the Falcons, 2-1, in an exciting overtime contest to advance to the Tier II title game tonight at 8 against Haverford School at Gründy. Germantown Academy captain Ray McKenzie was suspended for five games after shooting a puck into the stands in the Suburban High School Hockey League finale against Council Rock Damian Borchevsky and Mike Sivel each were suspended for a game because of an ejection for fighting in that finale, and Dave Perisho was visiting relatives in California.
CREDIT: The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Scott Huff – Special to the Inquirer
