Great Valley-Phoenixville, Owen J. Roberts advance to ICSHL championship

OAKS >> Owen J. Roberts wiped out a three-goal deficit and Cael Primanti scored in overtime to give the Wildcats a 6-5 win over Boyertown Tuesday night in an Inter County Scholastic Hockey League Pioneer Division playoff semifinal.

In the first game at Oaks Center Ice, Great Valley-Phoenixville got two goals and two assists from Alejandro Blum and 43 saves from Aidan Rogacki in a 7-4 win over Perkiomen Valley.

Defending champion OJR and GVP will play for the Pioneer Division title Thursday at 7:30 p.m. back at Center Ice.

Primanti controlled a pass from the corner out in front of the goal, spun, and drilled in his second goal of the night with 12:06 left in the first overtime.

“It was a team goal,” he said. “It’s a great feeling. We’re reigning Pioneer champions. We want to defend that and look forward to the Flyers Cup playoffs.”

The Wildcats trailed 3-1 after a period and 4-1 early in the second and called a timeout to regroup.

“I felt we needed a momentum switch,” said OJR coach Chuck Gorman.”I brought them in for a timeout. We had to stick to our game plan.”

“On the bench, we were just telling each other we’re good,” said Primanti. “We just need the first one and then we’ll be rolling.”

That first goal of the comeback was scored by Drew Barone two minutes later and Luke Armstrong scored with just 17 seconds left in the period to make it 4-3.

Then Charlie Davis scored a short-handed goal with 10:23 remaining in the contest to tie the score.

“That was probably the biggest goal of his career,” said Gorman. ”Charlie Davis and Cael, they are our 1-2 punch, a force to be reckoned with.”

After Davis tied the score, Primanti gave the Wildcats the lead with 4:03 to go, but Weston Bieber tied it for Boyertown with 2:03 left.

OJR goalie Shane Towler came up with several big saves in the back-and-forth overtime session before Primanti ended it.

“Shane is a great goalkeeper,” said Primanti. “I feel he’s the under-rated goalie in our league. He came up with some big saves, especially in overtime.”

“He’s been my goalie since elementary school,” said Gorman. “The last two years, he’s put in a lot of training and work. He’s carried us all year.”

Towler made 42 saves and Boyertown goalie Tyler Griffith had 45 as the No. 3 seed Wildcats (8-3-0-1 Pioneer, 13-5-0-1) outshot No. 2 Boyertown (9-2-0-1, 13-5-0-1), 51-47.

Zachary Rosen, Brendan Cutillo and Logan Brown scored in the first period for Boyertown and Noah Cutillo produced the 4-1 lead with 12:20 to go in the second. Brady Callahan scored for the Wildcats to tie the score at 1-1 in the first.

Earlier, No. 1 seed GVP (9-2-1, 14-4-1), which had lost in the semifinals three years in a row, fell behind 2-1 early in the second, but scored four straight the rest of the period and hung on for the win thanks to four big saves in the last two minutes by Rogacki and a late empty-net goal.

“It’s great as a team, especially our seniors,” junior forward Dale Mackay said concerning breaking the semifinal losing streak. “It was awesome to do it for them, especially.”

“Overall, we played well,” said GVP coach Dave Stewart. “We really approached the game with speed. We’re not the biggest team. We forechecked well tonight. I think we moved the puck well. And Aidan Rogacki in net … he made some incredible saves.”

Jack Cichetti opened the scoring four minutes into the contest for No. 4 seed PV (8-4-0,12-7-0) and Mackey tied it 3 ½ minutes later. Then Jeffrey Swartz scored his first of two 37 seconds into the second period to give PV its last lead of the night.

But consecutive goals by Blum, Ryan Jasudowich, Caleb Redman and Jasudowich made it 5-2 after two.
“We forechecked as hard as we could and we moved the puck really well,” said Mackay. “And we got shots on net, which was what we really needed.”

But Swartz scored just 31 seconds into the third period to make a game of it again.

“It was really nerve-wracking,” said Stewart. “They have a lot of offensive power. We got a little soft in the third period. We came out a little flat after the break between the second and third periods.”

Christian Rosone put GVP back up by two with 10 minutes to go and Dax Nguyen scored with 6:41 left for PV for a 6-4 score.

But GVP hung on as Rogacki made save and save and Blum iced the win with an empty-netter with 38 seconds left.
“He played out of his mind,” Mackay said concerning Rogacki. “He stood on his head.”

“He’s a senior,” said Stewart. “He’s been doing that since he was a freshman.”

Carson Moscariello made 39 saves for Perkiomen Valley.

Great Valley-Phoenixville 7, Perkiomen Valley 4

Perkiomen Valley               1 1 2 – 4
Great Valley-Phoenixville 1 4 2 -7
Scoring
First Period
PVC – Cichetti, 13:09
GVP – Mackay (A Blum, Rosone), 9:36
Second Period
PV – Swartz (Waters, Nguyen), 16:23
GVP – Blum (Mackay), 15:41
GVP – Jasudowich (Harmetz, Redman), 13:24
GVP – Redman, 10:26
GVP – Jasudowich (Hartmetz, Rosone), 9:11
Third Period
PV – Swartz (Cichetti, Fitzpatrick), 16:29
GVP – Rosone (Jasudowich, A Blum)
GVP – A Blum, 0:38
Shots: GVP 46, PV 47
Saves: GVP (Rogacki) 43, PV (C Moscariello) 39

Owen J.Roberts 6, Boyertown 5 (OT)

Owen J. Roberts 1 2 2 1 – 6
Boyertown           3 1 1 0 – 5
Scoring
First Period
B – Rosen, 15:55
OJR – Callahan (Bochanski), 5:43
B – B Cutillo, 5:05
B – Brown, 2:10
Second Period
B – N Cutillo, 12:20
OJR – Barone (Davis, Jones)
OJR – Armstrong (Saunders, Jones), 0:17
Third Period
OJR – Davis (Primanski), 10:23
OJR – Primanski (McAteer, Davis)
B – Bieber, 2:03
Overtime
OJR – Primanski (Saunders, Makhija), 12:06
Shots: B 47, OJR 51
Saves: B (Griffith) 45, OJR (Towler) 42