1995 After slow start, Patriots skate into final round

Defending Flyers Cup champion Germantown Academy played a familiar foe in its semifinal game Thursday night at the Face-Off Circle in Warminster: Suburban High School Hockey League rival Council Rock.
The Patriots, who had beaten Council Rock five consecutive times during the season, trailed the upstart Indians, 1-0, early in the first period of the Class AAA game. Rock came out fired up against the Suburban High School Hockey League champions and dominated the action in the first five minutes of the game. But after junior Dan Blum gave the Indians the lead, Germantown Academy scored six unanswered goals and coasted to a 6-1 victory. “Playing a one-game elimination is scary,” Germantown Academy coach John loia said. “Anything can happen in a single game, and I told the kids to play the game like it’s an overtime period. They came up with a lot of adrenalin and made it tough on us. Rock is a good team.” The Patriots next will face Downingtown in a best-of-three series that will begin at 8 tonight at Face-Off. The second game will be played at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Skatium, with the third game, if needed, at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Skatium. The Patriots next will face

Downingtown in a best-of-three series that will begin at 8 tonight at Face-Off. The second game will be played at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Skatium, with the third game, if needed, at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Skatium. “The goal all season is to go back to the state playoffs,” said Ioia, whose team lost the state title game to Meadville last season. “We have geared up for the big games like this all year. This is our third trip to the Flyers Cup finals in three years, and for the seven seniors on this team, it will be their last chance at a state title.” The No. 1 line of seniors Rich Podulka, Rob Shaner, and Ryan Kilstein came up big in the game. Podulka recorded a hat trick, Shaner had a goal and four assists, and Kilstein added three assists. “We felt that if we could hold things together after that rough start, our first line would just be too strong for them,” Ioia said. “And that’s pretty much what happened.” Podulka scored with 5 minutes, 53 seconds left in the first period, and sophomore Radim Zelenka added a goal to give GA the lead for good with 1:02 remaining in the first. Senior David Dratch and Shaner scored second-period goals for the Patriots, and Podulka completed his hat trick with a pair of goals in the third period. The frustration of the wasted strong start was

Germantown Academy…..6
Council Rock………………….1
AAA Flyers Cup semifinal

evident on the face of Council Rock coach Paul Gilligan. “We played a 2-3 system against them tonight, and it was something that they haven’t seen all year from us,” Gilligan said. “And it worked great in the first period. But for some reason, we stopped doing the things we had to do to be successful. We started playing the puck instead of the man, and you can’t do that against a team like Germantown Academy. “All season, we talked about getting a shot at Germantown Academy in the playoffs. Last year, we beat them for the league championship, but they beat us in the Flyers Cup when it counted most. We got our chance to do to them this; year what they did to us last year. But we just didn’t get the job done.”