Hattrick Swayze

18U Armstrong won the 3rd game of the tournament and finished 1-2. The 16U Renegades went 2-1 in round robin play and is moving on to play the Littleton Hawks from Colorado tomorrow. The 14U Badgers went 2-1 and is moving on to play the Power City Bruins from New York. Good luck to the Renegades and Badgers tomorrow morning.

Tier 2 Update: 18U Armstrong 0-2, 16U Renegades 1-1, 14U Badgers 1-1. I believe if the Renegades and Badgers win their games tomorrow they will both move onto the quarter finals.

Good Luck to the local teams heading to Tier 2 Nationals this week. 18U Armstrong Arrows, 05 Steel City Renegades, and 07 Allegheny Badgers. Hope all of you have success and represent our area well. Would love to see a Western Pa team bring home a National Championship!

Good to know!

Pretty sure this fake, considering the name is (Loose A**hole) and the other comment came from (Tight A**hole). Just a hunch on my part though.

You are 100% correct but unfortunately so many teams have pulled out of PAHL that the good teams that are left have to make a tough decision. Play in a league that does not create a lot of competition and hurts their ranking, unless they blow teams out every game or go independent and try to push for Nationals. If all of the teams listed in this thread would play PAHL it would be null and void. Unfortunately at this point there is nobody in the area that is going to fix this. I am sure that the families and coaches of these teams for the most part would rather play 20 games locally that were competitive rather than travel all over the country and spend more money. I would love to see this thread provide solutions to this issue rather than everyone complaining about the teams that have left PAHL because the other competitive teams in the area are already gone. I am a huge believer that if we only had 2 AAA organizations in the Pittsburgh region and every other team played in PAHL that none of these teams would feel the need to leave. Maybe that is is a pipe dream and the days of playing locally in a competitive league are long gone but it would be great to see a local league provide a competitive alternative to these teams feeling like they have to leave to compete nationally. PAHL and Mid Am are stuck in the past and if they don't change the way they do things then you are going to continue to see more teams leave and look for more. Right or wrong it is the mindset of the hockey families/teams/organizations. You can blame organizations but all of this is being driven by the parents who think if their kid isn't playing AAA then they won't be seen and will not have a chance at playing at a higher level. What these families do not understand is 99% of these kids will not play a higher level than Club hockey in College. My advice is to enjoy the ride while it lasts and let your kids play at a level that is good for their development and confidence as a player and a person.

The 07 Badgers team has went 41-1-2 the last two years in PAHL and won the regular season and playoffs both seasons. Funny you only bring up their loss, two ties, and the handful of close games they have played to prove your point. They were 17-1-2 and outscored their opponents 117-35 this season, so most of the games they played were not competitive. I doubt the other PAHL teams will be sad to see them leave. The other issue is because of the weight put on the MHR's for the Mid Am tournament to qualify for nationals these teams have to beat the lower teams by 6-7 goals or they lose points in the rankings. Nothing good comes from those blowout games for either team. I do agree with you whole heartedly that if SHAHA, Icemen, Vengeance, Badgers, Foxes, Huskies, and Preds all played PAHL then there would be great competition locally for those teams but unfortunately SHAHA, Icemen, and Vengeance already went AAA or independent AA. I think some of the teams do not think it is worth their time to play 4-6 competitive games out of a 20 game schedule. If you look at the 06 age group it is more of the same. The only two true 06 teams in 16U AA this year were the Renegades and Badgers. Those two teams are very competitive with one another. SHAHA, Vengeance, and Preds all have AAA teams. SHAHA is ranked 42nd, Vengeance is 55th, and the Preds are 99th. The Preds MHR is lower than the Badgers and Renegades. If those 5 teams played PAHL and add in Icemen and North Pitt you have a great division there as well. Fake AAA has ruined the PAHL AA Divisions. If Pittsburgh did it the way Detroit and Chicago does it and would limit the amount of AAA organizations then PAHL would be a powerhouse league. If there were only two AAA organizations (Pens Elite and Esmark) then the rest of the teams would be stupid not to play PAHL. At this point the better teams have no incentive to play in PAHL in fact it hurts them. This needs to be fixed but Mid Am has no interest in stepping in and putting a stop to any of this nonsense.

Just a typo on my end it was supposed to say were not we’re. I have nothing to do with the Icemen. Just saw on their MHR they’re listed as AA so I assumed they were not registered as a Tier 1 team. I was looking at the PA ranking page and not the Tier 2 ranking page.

They used last weeks rankings to seed the teams. The 15U Icemen are not listed tier 1 and we’re higher ranked than SHAHA. Just seems odd to me.

The Tier 2 State tournament seeding and schedule has been released. The tournament will be played at Ice Castle between 3/3-3/6. Should be some fun hockey to watch over that weekend! There are some really good local teams and hopefully we get some good matchups for the Championship games! There were some surprises when they released the seeding. At 14U it went straight off the MHR's. At 16U the 06 PHA Icemen had a better MHR than SHAHA but SHAHA got the bid to the tournament over them. At 18U the top 4 came straight from the MHR scores. After that it is confusing, Preds 305 should have been 5th and are 8th, Steel City should have been 6th and are 5th, Keystone Wild should have been 7th and are 6th, SHAHA Panthers should have been 8th and are 7th. Beyond the discrepancy with how they seeded the teams who are the Keystone Wild? They are rostered under the State College Icer's organization but have only played 12 games this season and their record is 3-6-3. There was not much else to choose from at the 18U age level but this team is a total mystery. Good Luck to all of the teams involved! Here is the seeding breakdown at the respective age levels: 14U: 1- Allegheny Badgers, 2- South Hills Panthers, 3- Arctic Foxes, 4- Pittsburgh Huskies, 5- Pittsburgh Predators, 6- PHA Icemen, 7- North Pittsburgh, 8- South Pittsburgh 16U: 1- 05 Steel City, 2- 06 Allegheny Badgers, 3- North Pittsburgh, 4- Armstrong Arrows, 5- 06 Steel City, 6- Mid State Mustangs, 7- Pittsburgh Predators, 8- South Hills Panthers 18U: 1- Arctic Foxes, 2- Allegheny Badgers, 3- Armstrong Arrows, 4- Pittsburgh Predators 304, 5- Steel City, 6- Keystone Wild, 7- SHAHA Panthers, 8- Pittsburgh Predators 305

So when everyones dues go up because every ice rink in the country has to pay for full time security guards who is going to be hurt by that? The fact of the matter is adults can no longer act like adults at youth sporting events. It is a sad reality that we all need to either accept or start holding people accountable. Parents should be able to show up at their kids games and cheer them on, there is nothing wrong with that. The biggest issue at this point is the parents get so emotionally attached to the game that they can't help themselves from yelling at the kids playing the game whether it be players from their team or the other team. The kids on the team for the most part are embarrassed by their parents behavior. This is the same reason that nobody wants to referee or coach. You can remain blind to the fact that referee's are dwindling across the country in every sport or that no-one who is not a parent will coach if they are not paid. Paid coaches at the youth level are another reason why a lot of you are paying over $4,000 a year for your kids to play hockey. It is an easily solution to say there should be paid security at every single youth hockey game but that costs money. That money comes out of the pockets of the parents that want their kids to play hockey and enjoy playing the sport. The other issue is finding capable security guards or police to show up for 3 hours on a week night for PIHL games or a 10-12 hour day for PAHL games on Saturdays and Sundays. It would be much easier on everyone if people would quit being complete assholes instead of putting blame on everyone else but that is never going to happen. Lets all continue on pretending that we are not part of the issue at hand!

I have talked to several coaches and players who have played against Shaler this season. Every single one of them have said 14 on Shaler has been a problem every time they have played them. I am in NO way excusing the Latrobe parent of his participation in the incident but if you watch the entire video from the live barn camera you can see the Shaler mom and dad acting very aggressive toward the Latrobe dad way before the player comes off the ice and engages with the Latrobe dad. After the final whistle a Shaler player (not sure if it is 14 or not) engages a Latrobe player and tries to rip his helmet off. After the Handshake line (which should have never taken place) several Latrobe and Shaler players come together over by Latrobe's bench. Most of the meetings are civil but some escalate and a Shaler player throws a punch at a Latrobe Player. 14 from Shaler seems to be talking to a Latrobe player after the game and skates away without incident. At the same time his mom and dad and the Latrobe dad are in a heated argument. The Shaler parents were definitely the aggressors in this incident, but no one knows what the Latrobe parent said. When 14 from Shaler exits the ice surface he immediately goes up into the stands. From one angle he is seen yelling at the Latrobe dad, unfortunately not much of that conversation is caught on audio as you can not hear what is said between the player and Latrobe parent. At this time # 14 from Shaler charges up the stands and throws an uppercut at the Latrobe dad. There were 3-4 other Shaler players in the stands. A bunch of those players were innocent and were just trying to break up the fight. At least one of the other players shoved another Latrobe Parent on the other side of the bleachers. No matter how you break this down it is sad for the local hockey community. We have taken several hits this year and we need to come together and end this type of behavior and stupidity!

A parent fight broke out in the stands at the end of the Shaler vs Latrobe game on Thursday night. At one point there were at least 4 Shaler players in the stands a few of which threw punches or shoved Latrobe parents. It will be interesting to see how the PIHL handles this one. What a disaster! I wonder if they watched Slapshot before the game? Old Time Hockey!

There are problem coaches, parents, and players in every organization. Most of the time it is a certain team or group of people that cause most of the issues. To call out entire organizations for their "culture" is ridiculous. The vast majority of people involved in youth hockey just want to watch their kids play and enjoy the ride. It is the small percentage of idiots who ruin it for everyone else. When my kid played we always had issues with the Vipers and Armstrong but to say the entire organization was bad is just ignorant. Maybe we should just ban all of the organizations that are issues or take it even further and cancel youth hockey all together!

Not much has changed as far as the top teams but it is still great to see some local teams ranking so high Nationally. Latest Rankings: 18U - Arctic Foxes - 92.94 - 18th USA Tier 2 05's - Steel City - 91.61 - 6th USA Tier 2 06's - Allegheny - 90.07 - 5th USA Tier 2 07's - Allegheny - 91.06 - 7th USA Tier 2 08's - Steel City - 86.37 - 9th USA Tier 2 09's - SHAHA - 89.86 10's - Aviators - 85.02 11's - North Pgh - 88.00 12's - Preds - 84.56

Here are the rankings for the top Tier 2 PAHL teams. 18U - Arctic Foxes - 92.96 - 19th USA Tier 2 05's - Steel City - 91.57 - 5th in USA Tier 2 06's - Allegheny Badgers - 89.60 - 5th in USA Tier 2 07's - Allegheny Badgers - 91.24 - 9th in USA Tier 2 08's - Steel City - 86.44 - 7th in USA Tier 2 09's - SHAHA - 89.41 - N/A 10's - Aviators - 84.41 - N/A 11's - North Pittsburgh - 87.54 - N/A 12's - Predators - 83.95 - N/A It is nice to see some of the local teams ranked so high in Tier 2. It would be great to see some of these teams represent Pittsburgh at USA Hockey Nationals in the spring! Going to enjoy seeing how the 14U -18U rankings play out through the Mid-Am tournament.

I do not think it was the coaches at all. From my understanding they brought players in and promised them AA and when they got placed in A Major in PAHL they pulled out of PAHL because of their placement. I just think it is a shame if the parents are paying the same fee's as the Viper Stars teams that are playing an independent schedule or a AA schedule. They have only played 19 games to this point because they can not find teams to play when most of the AA teams have played close to 30 games already. I think it is much more on the parents of the team wanting to say their players are AA players and they're willing to pay the extra money. It is sad that youth hockey has come to this point!

I heard Mario is making a comeback and has been secretly training there with Jay Caufield. Very confidential information!!

This team would be the second lowest ranked team in the PAHL A Major Black division had they stayed in PAHL. I am sure their families are thrilled with playing independent and struggling to find games. I wonder if the organization discounted their dues from the Viper Stars rate to the regular Vipers rate?

I know the new rankings come out tomorrow so things might change but I'd love to see this keep going. Here is where it stands currently from the MHR. 18U- Arctic Foxes 05- Steel City 06- Allegheny 07-Allegheny 08- Steel City 09-SHAHA 10- Aviators 11- North PGH 12- Predators

Did any of the local AA or AAA teams do well at the CCM Chicago tournament this past weekend?