April 4, 1991
Despite being down, 1-0, to Council Rock in the best-of-three final for the Tier I Flyers Cup championship, Malvern Prep figured to have an advantage in Tuesday night’s second game by returning to its home rink at the Skatium in Havertown with a horde of fans backing the team. But Council Rock coach Paul Gilligan had a plan to offset that. “I thought we’d need to establish the tempo early in the game and come out and take control,” Gilligan said. “I figured they’d come out real strong on their own ice, so it was only important that we set the tone.” Council Rock did just that by out-skating the Friars in the first two periods while building a 3-1 lead. The Indians then fell into a defensive shelf in the final period to stan Malvern with a 3-2 victory and take the championship. For Malvern, whose season ended at 22-4, the loss deprived the defending Flyers Cup and state champions of a chance to repeat. For Council Rock (22-1), it was the second time the Indians won the cup, having last taken it in 1988, and they’ll now advance to Saturday’s state championship game against the Pittsburgh region’s Tier I Penguins Cup winner at Viking Arena in King of Prussia. It was difficult to pinpoint where Malvern went wrong in the final series, except that Friars coach Bob Martin felt his team simply met its match in the Indians. In last Thursday’s opening game at the Face-Off Circle Rink in Warminster, the Friars also fell, 3-2. “I thought we played two good, consistent games and we did everything we wanted, but we just didn’t get the wins,” Martin said. The first period of Tuesday’s game was evenly played until Council Rock’s Roman Bussetti gave his team a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal with 3 minutes, 18 seconds remaining Malvern came back to tie it 3 minutes into the second period when winger Adam Russo backhanded a rebound into the net. Council Rock went up 2-1 less than 3 minutes later, when the Indians’ Chris Medl knocked a rebound past Friars goalie Chris Dempsey. Indians defenseman Ron Reilly clinched the game when he beat Dempsey with one second left in the period to make the score 3-1. Malvern did narrow it to 3-2 when Keith Grimley stole a clearing pass and beat Indians goalie Tom Kratch-well (26 saves), but from there the Indians held on for the win by limiting the Friars to few scoring opportunities.
On Monday night at the Grundy Rink in Bristol, Haverford High lost its bid to take the Tier II Flyers Cup championship by losing in overtime to Germantown Academy, 5-4, in one-game final. The Fords squandered a 4-2 lead in the second period and allowed GA (20-2) to come back and tie the game in the third. Three minutes into overtime, GA’s Mike Malone ended it when he went in alone on a breakaway and beat Fords goalie Chris Duca. The Fords got goals from Jim Northrop, Dan Massella, John Dwyer and Bill McNelis. Duca came up with 26 saves as Haverford High ended its season at 18-8.
CREDIT: The Philadelphia Inquirer
By David T. Shaw – Special to the Inquirer
