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So for ~8 years you were "reverse homered" but at a few other rinks the home team got the calls. If your rosters stayed somewhat consistent over the years I'm seeing a common denominator...

Yeah so what - I would have loved to get my ass kicked as a high school kid and go 9-47. Makes total sense Mr. PA Hockey. 🤡 Since you are super genius maybe you should step in and show those schools how to run a program. Based on your computer and web skills I am sure you would have them turned around in no time.

This just happened a few years ago. 16 yr old bled out on the ice. There was some more additional enforcement by some refs in both PIHL and PAHL and then nothing again.

Mars Butler and Shaler all have JV Teams and should be in AA

I don't think it was on purpose. A player being a goon and having been suspended or getting a bunch of penalty minutes doesn't equate to assuming he would try to cut someone with a skate. Along with boarding, kicking is one of those things you just don't do. And I don't think he did. What I think happened (keep in mind we're not dealing with a player who is the greatest skater nor the quickest thinker out on the ice) is that he is moving with some speed, gets tripped up, and his legs fly up in the air. He sees Johnson coming towards him and instinctually and clumsily tries brace himself for collision, even maybe to kick his skate out of the way. Because of the how fast this all happened and due to him and Johnson both moving at different speeds, he had about a half-second to decide what was going on. Unfortunately, skate met Johnson's neck. I feel awful for Johnson, his family, and teammates and friends. I also feel terrible for Petgrave. I'm sure the last thing he needs on top of the tragedy is being accused of killing the man. That said, I have no problem with people asking the question. But a big problem with people just accusing the guy without seeing a transcript of the statement he gave to investigators and not knowing anything other than seeing a video from one angle that doesn't tell the whole story.

Sounds like all the AAA programs more than PAHL to me.

That's a great way to describe it. I haven't watched it because I already flinch any time I see skates flying in any age group game. If you've watched enough Law and Order, a lot of perps like to be a part of the action like the arsonist who stays around to watch.

It does not seem accidental and obviously I dont think he intended to kill him. However it was purposly reckless and that is the type of player he is, especially when reviewing his history. I agree 100% with the original poster with his actions after the incident. He knew what he did and that he was guilty, he literally & figuratively distances himself from the crime. Detectives talk about this subconscous reaction all the time. I don't know what can be "proved" and what laws govern here, but in general it seems like negligent manslaughter

First of all, the PIHL is a shade of what it started out to be as over 20 years when it started in 1999 it has lost nearly 40 organizations from the 90 or so it started with. The Vision was to have geographic rivalries at AAA, AA, and A and have pure schools to compete for the Penguins Cup and State Championship. Two conferences Northeast and Southwest, Geographically divided to control travel and costs. I didn't happen and schools got priced out for a multitude of reasons and programs started vanishing. The competitive formula has its limits and does not take into account development at JV and Middle School and program numbers. And of course losing heavy Senior Classes. The last three years record has little of nothing do with the current roster (ie Kiski). The goal of the PIHL should be to have 16 at AAA, 16 at AA and 16 at A and geographically divide schools for a 22 Game Regular season schedule and have 8 schools in the playoffs to have kittle prestige to the Penguins Cup. Better Times YES Press Coverage YES Attractive to Travel Players YES Kudos to Ten Band doing a great job covering HS Hockey and more to come

Better game times, more press coverage, etc. There's likely no evidence that was EVER the case, but I was told that by someone who worked for PIHL a few years ago. And yes, not taking into account graduating classes from the year before is an issue (I've been there, believe me). This is where school enrollment, program enrollment, and 5-10 year history should be taken into consideration like Rewster said above. It would provide a good idea of how quickly a program can bounce back. The attitude of "there is no benefit of moving up, ever" though is why the classifications are sized the way they are currently.

It’s not based upon a year-to-year promotion/relegation. It should be (i.e. the spirit of the classification) to take into consideration the overall enrollment, boys high school enrollment, high school hockey enrollment, factored in to the most recent trend of the past 5 to 10 seasons and each school’s regular season and playoff finish. I hate to beat a dead horse…but there has to be special qualifiers based upon if it’s a private, or parochial school that can “recruit” from a greater region. It’s one thing coming from Philadelphia where the private schools have their own classification…Pittsburgh simply does not have that type of population or enrollment to support a small/select number of schools.

Reward teams for moving up, how? By moving them into a higher division when they graduate their best players and don't replace them? I wouldn't want that "reward", either.

@Wes "If the game is tight, your team will for sure get multiple penalties in the last ~10 minutes to try and even up the game (This is routine at Indiana as well). Happens 100% of the time." It's as if as you were there at the U18 game because that appears to have happened. SCIR up 2-0 mid second period, then the one-sided calls from the refs magically appear to include TWO 5 on 3's. Armstrong then scores two PP goals for the game to end in a tie.

Good for you but different age ranges doesn't matter. I have seen it from Mites to Midgets with that organization including the coaches whether as a coach, spectator or ref.

To be honest I am afraid to even watch it. I know that the kids and PIHL and PAHL better show up with their neck guards. It really is such a simple piece of equipment to wear.

The Badgers parents and players are well known amongst the refs as being the dirtiest and rudest players and fans in the area. Of all the organizations to say they get reversed homered, no it's just being called right. They actually had a kid (13) tell a female ref to go make him a sandwich, multiple kids double bird the fans and even had a kid air jack off to the crowd as he got kicked out of a game. That's just recent stuff.

Indiana is horrible also. Som played on a team that went there for a game. They tied 4-4. Mainly because they were shorthanded the whole game. Played them later in the year at home and beat them 14-1. Hardly any penalties either way. That is how much the refs effected the game. And the one point cost his team the regular season championship.

The penalty discrepancy as well as all sorts of shenanigans would go on at Belmont routinely when we played AA away games there from ~2012-2020. I'd rate the worst places for officiating as: 1) Belmont 2) Indiana (only in second place due to less cheap shots and cheap play) 3) Altoona or State College (lots of garbage calls, that make it hard for an away team to win, even against an inferior home team) 4) every other rink about even over the years. IS IT just a coincidence that all of those are far away from every other rink?? Some of the highlights that I recall: Top forward on our team was hit to the head and driven into the boards in the first 5 minutes of the game right in front of benches (concussion, out for a while) No call. Different game, another of our top players was cheap shot early in a game and knocked out of the game. Again at center ice by the benches. No call. Players punched by Armstrong players while leaving the ice to go to the locker rooms in front of the pool. Told Refs. Wouldn't look into it on the video camera system. Nothing happened. If the game is tight, your team will for sure get multiple penalties in the last ~10 minutes to try and even up the game (This is routine at Indiana as well). Happens 100% of the time. If your team has a decent lead, watch out for cheap shots the last 10 minutes. Players need to have their heads on a swivel. Of minor note, lousy scorekeeping and often refs would only give the goal and MAYBE a first assist to the away team, while always giving 2 assists to home team. I know this because I was a manager for years, and our teams didn't score exclusively on breakaways every time we were there. Total joke. Other musings: 1) if you're from out of the area and go for a tryout there, unless you're Connor McDavid, Jr., or were ASKED to show up, your player has about a 0% chance of making an AA team there, so don't waste your time.

Step up and say who it is--coward.

At least as a spectator at Belmont, you can hide in the balcony.

Must be perfect LOL ?

I haven't heard that. But don't know how that can be construed as an accident.

If you haven't seen the snippet of Adam Johnson getting hit in the throat by a "reverse roundhouse kick" by the other player, you might want to check it out. Once again, I've seen a ton of hockey over the years, and never saw anyone fall over on their own and then do a leg swing behind them and up in the air. Looked very intentional to me. The player also casually watched the aftermath and skated away, instead of rushing back to help the player which was another telltale sign to me. I didn't post the video here but it is all over twitter. I hope this is investigated, but from the races of the parties involved, along with the immediate "freak injury" crap from the media, I'm not confident this will be looked at. I'd especially like to hear from some of the old timers on here about their thoughts on this one.