hockeyisgreat

Still have two days till tryouts start! Why give them money any earlier than you have to? Besides I heard they pretty much have who they want through open skates!

I admire you guys for giving it a go. Too many people here were just waiting for it to fail! This forum seems to be for everyone to complain about something so don't take anything personally!

This topic got way off track! I think it's time to shut it down!

Thanks for giving us the update. Sounds like you had the right idea to finish it up with 4 games left!

So what was the consensus? Why not just finish the season with 4 games left to play? Didn't the players know what they were getting into about 2 weeks into the season? Finish what you started and move on! Don't leave the rest of the league hanging!

Bummer for the players who just wanted to play the game they love! Hopefully someone can salvage the idea for next year. Probably couldn't get enough players to travel at their expense!

Who is TPH? Thanks

Armstrong 18U is 3A. They start at 5:00PM Pittsburgh Ice Arena. Tough first game but they should be in contention for a championship. They have a very solid team! Allegheny 18uAA is the host team so they had an automatic bid. they can play with the teams in 2A. Down 4-3 to start the 3rd period

Good luck to all the SWPA teams! Allegheny 18UAA kicks it off at 9:15AM this morning at Delmont. Bring home some Champions!

PAHL players can be from anywhere. No geographic requirements. D2 teams are supposed to be from no more than 5 schools within a geographic region who are unable to field a team on their own. PAHL hockey is nothing like PIHL High School hockey! Once again it is not the players faults that they live in an area where their school can't field a team. Why can't they be on equal terms with the "Pure Teams".

Great work! Not surprising when you questioned him further! Which brings up a really good point! Why is the D-2 Championship not for a Penguins cup? Just because there is no similar league in the East or just because the higher ups believe it is inferior hockey? It's played in the West so why can't it be called the D-2 Penguins cup? Once again small schools are being discriminated against!

Does anyone know how the PeeWee tryouts at Esmark are going? Do they have a lot of kids at the tryouts or will they be taking everyone who is trying out like they did last year! They started Saturday and are ending today! Will be interesting to see if they field teams considering all the bad press they got this year!

Congratulations to the Stellar 6! You still didn't show me where D-2 gets plenty of publicity! Maybe they should have their own Top 6! Maybe call them the Co-op Top 6. Would be an impressive list!

I call it like I see it! Maybe next year you will include D-2 in your rankings from the begining of the season and Keith Barnes might mention them in his articles. Those kids are working as hard as everyone else and they have some great players in their league! That's all I want to say!

So you are saying that the Schools in D-2 don't work hard? Those teams and coaches have to work harder to join players from 5 schools together to form a team. Wow I didn't realize how much you are against D-2. So that's why you try hard not to recognize their accomplishments! Very sad!

So the champions from those leagues should get together and have a playoff to play against the D-2 champion from SWPA! And while we are on the subject why do they call it D-2 or B? That's a little discriminatory! But then again I wouldn't want it called A-. Maybe the PIHL should realign to AAAA, AAA, AA and A! If they are going to keep 4 divisions!

Got to agree with you 100% I would love to see the top 6 in D-2 play the Stellar 6. Congratulations Burrell on a great season! A bad call away from a chance at the championship. One of the best championship games. I will say that D-2 might come up a little short in the goalie area.

Some good discussions going on here. Glad to see we have some new folks to add their perspective to this site.

Latrobe played in 2A this year. They made it out of pool play. Represented SWPA well!

Can't move up in the PIHL. They are a co-op team with players from multiple schools who can't field a team on their own. The PIAA lets schools co-op and qualify for the State tournaments. I guess it is a SWPA thing and there is no complimentary division in the east. It is great that close to 300 kids play in D-2 that otherwise wouldn't get a chance to play High School Hockey. No Amateur team can duplicate the High School fan atmosphere! Even if it is coming from 5 different schools.

Wow! I'm just wondering what your High School Hockey Coaching record is over the last 3 years?

Where does D-2 get plenty of publicity? Has there ever been a D-2 player recognized in your Stellar 6? You didn't even include them in your rankings and Keith Barnes didn't include them in his previews or articles on the championship previews. Where is there any mention of D-2 in your history of PA high school hockey book? And didn't I say that was a wonderful list. Why don't you congratulate the player that led all of the PIHL in scoring? He can't make your Stellar 6? Whats the criteria for inclusion?

While that is a wonderful list it is very sad that Keith Barnes does not recognize the co-op players! Ryan Saginaw and Gio Valentine were as good if not better than the Stellar 6! It's not their fault that they play for teams that need to combine schools to form a team. I would say that what they accomplished in some ways was tougher than what the Stellar 6 accomplished! Anyone ever ask Barnes why he doesn't even consider D-2!

In my opinion (isn't worth much) there are good players on almost all AAA teams. Just not enough of them. Once again most folks here will tell you that if your team isn't ranked in the top 25 of Tier 1 it's a Faux AAA team. I didn't know that the Aviators were trying to put together a AAA team. What age group? I'm guessing they had a good AA team they think can move up! Most likely they will end up in the bottom of AAA!

And according to most folks here they are the only ones that are true AAA! Everybody else (which is almost every organization) is just a money grab and a Faux AAA team!