Wes

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.

On 10/5/2023 at 4:02 PM, Danner27 said:

Both IUP teams - team 1 got swept by GMU. Team 2 got beat down by Saint Vincent College. Embarrassment for both of the IUP teams. 

IUP D3 played CalU last night and Calu won 4-3.  Cal was winning 3-0 and then 4-1 and a couple of late goals made it closer than it should've been.  IUP D3 did not look very good.  Took a load of penalties at their home building.  If Cal has a better PP, that game would have been a blowout.

On 10/1/2023 at 1:04 AM, Danner27 said:

It appears both hockey teams partied to much this week. Both with embarrassing losses to bad teams this weekend. 

Which teams, who did they play and the scores??

56 minutes ago, Happy Hockey Fan said:

There have not been any changes to PAHL in many many years. Change takes work. I don’t think the leaders are interested in doing any more work than they do now. I believe new people would be more energetic in their efforts. 

And new blood can't penetrate the PAHL block wall. 

Looks great!  

I'm thinking the boards and glass were bought used as they aren't pristine clean as you'd expect with new ones.

On 8/11/2023 at 3:48 PM, PUCKCOVID19 said:

not if your pull out game is weak, might be back in it lolololololol

I'm not banging random hockey moms at this point so I should be ok.

4 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

They are hiding their Roster so that no one can Poach their players.  If you look you will see that Esmark does not have their rosters up either.   I also think some kids at 18U are trying to make Junior Rosters so haven't completely decided who they are playing for.  I've heard of a few 18Us that are going out of state to play next year.  Should be interesting when it all shakes out.

So glad I'm past this phase 😁

4 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Is that a bad thing?

not at all. my son has a ton of fun playing against players from the PAHL on his ACHA team.  Plus he plays on like 3 beer league teams with more of his buddies and they have a great time there too.

Great pics!  I forgot the overlook.  That should be a great place to watch the game and keep the parents far away from the ice at the same time LOL.

On 8/4/2023 at 9:07 PM, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Was that an indoor roller hockey facility?

Yes, it was used as both indoor roller and indoor DEK.  Great facility but a bit run down since the original owners sold it a few years back.  It was always busy.

Just wanted to bring this up, Hotshots double DEK rink in Mt. Pleasant is permanently closed and will be converted into a truck depot.

My son played in adult dek leagues there and it was one of the nicer Dek only facilities.  They had lots of active teams playing there with players from Westmoreland and Fayette, now those players are all without a rink.

Sad to see it go.  

I am pretty sure the same owners who owned Murrysville Dek and formerly PIA have now unloaded both PIA and MT. P.  I believe the original owners (Gergers?) sold it to the Murrysville folks.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the photo!

I am curious as to the sizing of the rink and if they are able to squeeze any standing area on the locker room side of the rink.

When it was a soccer field it was hard to guess how a rink would fit in there.  Now that the concrete is in I'm curious as to the layout.

If anyone could post pics that would be great!

This might have a better chance if very reputable people in WPA were involved with things.  There are a lot of good coaches, managers and hockey people in this area.  The owner of this team apparently has a questionable background which doesn't give you a warm feeling.

18 minutes ago, nemesis8679 said:

Whats his connection to high level hockey? 

Good question.  Never heard of that name in regards to hockey.

22 hours ago, kid310050 said:

I saw this on Facebook a couple of days ago, I was wondering if this was a Black Bear creation since they were playing at Printscape. 

Link?

12 hours ago, sadday4hockey said:

Am I missing something here?

The surrounding properties that @Danner27 referenced. 

Seems like they're trying to take the HA rink for pennies on the dollar... 

@Danner27 that makes sense from the political standpoint, since it is well known that the same party that runs the city also is/was loved by the Pens owners as well as DM.

I was thinking along the lines that at one point in the past that the pens might start acquiring nearby houses/properties in order to build parking or a garage at some point.

Now with that group of pens personnel & owners all gone, and the team being owned by out-of-staters with little to zero a$$ kissing needed, it makes sense that they aren't as interested in the property.

Gotcha- I think I was sleepy 🙂

I don't want any rink to close, just wish HA had better access.

11 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

Your overall point is well taken but I don't think anyone is going to sail in and drop anchors to play hockey in a harbor either. 

@aaaahockey maybe I'm a bit sleepy this AM.  What exactly do you mean?

I've been to pretty much every rink in western PA/WV/OH area, and many in OH Cleveland/Akron area as well as other rinks on the east coast, and none are like Hunt armory in terms of their location and total lack of parking.  Unless I live really close to HA, there's little chance I would ever want to go there.

I would drive an extra 10-15 min and go to Harmarville Alpha (or other rinks) for lessons, hockey, etc.  because at least I can park right next to those buildings, and they're all in pretty safe areas.

To me this was a doomed concept from the start, no matter who was running it.  If there's no parking and it's in the middle of an old, landlocked neighborhood, it's just not going to work out.  I recall looking this up on the map years back when the topic was first brought up and obviously you're thinking where are you going to park 50 cars??

The pens would have been better off building a normal structure and putting up a new rink somewhere with parking than this questionable concept.

on the other hand, it wouldn't suprise me if the pens got some financial government backing to do this since the pens over the last 20 years have lots of hooks into local politics (via one party).

otherwise there's no reason to spend money.

It looks like an EXCELLENT venue from the photo in the link above.  Just a shame you can't park there.

It would be a big turn off to me if I was bringing mites/squirts and then had to park blocks away.

Not to mention I wouldn't feel super safe walking multiple blocks in that neighborhood at night.

Couple of musings... 

I guess the plan to build a garage under the ice sheet never materialized.

Parking is still a major problem.

I really have no idea why the pens would want to buy a rink that is landlocked with zero parking.

4 hours ago, Loach said:

At the older ages, the few who move on to the USA Hockey camps are likely known prior to the tryouts, and yes, they typically play on the top AAA teams. In general, they are the best at the camp. 

I will 100% agree with that based on what I witnessed when my son did these mid-am tryouts.  Also, the kids that for sure knew they were making it didn't even try hard, and still made it.  If they have pre-selected people it becomes a big waste of time and money for parents who's kids won't even be looked at.

Felt that it was an honor to be picked by the org to go to the midam tryouts but thought it was a waste of time.

Reminded me of our high school tryouts which were also a total joke of pre-selected nonsense.  Literally 12-14 kids dicked around at those and still made the varsity team. 

3 hours ago, HereWithPopcorn said:

Bingo.  And what team does the son of the Rebellion's President play on?  Oh yeah, Lebo.  There is your smoking gun folks explaining the situation.

What?  WTF would the SPR's president's son play for a different org?  Sounds crazy!