March 5Mar 5 Allegheny Badgers Teams: 12U Independent 14U Independent Prospect Skate: March 20th Tryouts: Week of 4/6 Arctic Foxes Teams: 12U PAHL 14U PAHL 16U/19U PAHL Tryouts: 12U 4/19 10-11:20AM 14U 4/16 6-7:20 PM 16/19U 4/19 11:30AM-12:50PM Armstrong Arrows Teams: 12U PAHL 14U PAHL 19U Independent Prospect Skate: 12U/14U 3/16 6PM 19U 4/13 8:30PM Tryouts: 12U 3/17 6PM, 3/18 6PM 14U 3/17 7:10PM, 3/18 7:10PM 19U 4/15 8:30PM, 4/16 8:30PM Beaver Badgers Teams: 12U PAHL Tryouts: 12U 3/26 6:45PM Erie Otters Teams: 12U PAHL 14U Independent 16U Independent Tryouts: 12U 3/24 6:45PM, 3/26 6:45PM 14U 3/24 5:30PM, 3/26 6:15PM 19U 3/25 7:30PM Mon Valley Thunder Teams: 12U PAHL 14U Independent 16U Independent 19U Independent Tryouts: 12U 3/24, 3/29 14U 3/31, 4/6 16U 3/31, 4/6 19U 3/31, 4/6 Morgantown Blades Teams: 12U PAHL Tryouts: 12U 4/7 6:25PM, 4/8 5:15PM North Pittsburgh Wildcats Teams: 12U PAHL 14U PAHL 19U PAHL Tryouts: 12U 4/18 3PM, 4/19 2:25PM 14U 4/18 4:10PM, 4/19 3:35PM 19U 4/18 5:20PM, 4/19 4:45PM Pittsburgh Vengeance Teams: 14U PAHL 16U Independent Tryouts: 14U 4/13/2026 6:30 - 7:50 PM, 4/15/2026 6:30 - 7:50 PM, 4/18/2026 10:30 - 11:50 AM 16U 4/13/2026 8:00 - 9:20 PM, 4/15/2026 8:00 - 9:20 PM, 4/18/2026 12:00 - 1:20 PM SHAHA Panthers Teams: 12U PAHL 14U PAHL 14U Independent 19U PAHL Tryouts: 12U 4/14 5:00PM, 4/15 5:00PM 14U 4/14 6:00PM, 4/15 6:00PM 19U 4/14 7:00PM, 4/15 7:00PM State College Icers South Pittsburgh Rebellion Teams: 10U PAHL (All Girls Team playing in a PAHL Coed division) 12U PAHL 14U PAHL 19U PAHL Tryouts: 10U 3/28, 3/29 12U 4/6, 4/7 14U 4/7, 4/10 19U 4/20, 4/21 State College Icers Teams: 16U Independent Tryouts: 16U 4/1 6:4PM, 4/7 7:15PM Westmoreland Eagles Teams: 12U PAHL 14U PAHL 19U PAHL Tryouts: 12U 4/10 6:00PM 14U 4/10 7:10PM 19U 4/10 8:50PM Edited March 5Mar 5 by Zarg Correct Years
March 5Mar 5 Author No information available yet for Johnstown or Wheelings plans for next season that I could find. This past season Johnstown had a 14U team and Wheeling had a 12U team.
March 6Mar 6 Why are all these teams going independent? Serious question is it that easy to find girls to play against?
March 9Mar 9 Author On 3/6/2026 at 8:56 AM, aaaahockey said: Why are all these teams going independent? Serious question is it that easy to find girls to play against? Obviously that is a bit of a loaded question, but the PAHL is often perceived as a weaker competition for National Bound teams, which is a notion that tends to reinforce itself. Also, for some teams further outside the Pittsburgh metro area, they prefer flexible scheduling over committing to a full PAHL schedule. For higher-level teams, finding the right tier 2 opponents is generally fairly manageable. For the families though it does mean many more weekends away in Ohio, Michigan, and Upstate New York during the course of the season than playing locally. Edited March 9Mar 9 by Zarg
March 9Mar 9 6 hours ago, Zarg said: Obviously that is a bit of a loaded question, but the PAHL is often perceived as a weaker competition for National Bound teams, which is a notion that tends to reinforce itself. Also, for some teams further outside the Pittsburgh metro area, they prefer flexible scheduling over committing to a full PAHL schedule. For higher-level teams, finding the right tier 2 opponents is generally fairly manageable. For the families though it does mean many more weekends away in Ohio, Michigan, and Upstate New York during the course of the season than playing locally. So in other words chasing As instead of growing girls hockey?
March 9Mar 9 2 hours ago, aaaahockey said: So in other words chasing As instead of growing girls hockey? I think that with the girls there is a good reason to play on independent teams because the PAHL girls sections usually consist of one or two good teams, and the rest struggle to field strong teams. There aren’t as many girls playing as there are boys. Makes it difficult to have many strong teams in one division.
March 9Mar 9 I'll bite. 19U the vengeance girls seemed to be dominating so maybe I could see it there. 14U looks to be competitive with the exception of Armstrong (lost almost all their games) and SHAHA (Who went undefeated in regular season but lost to #4 in the division who went on to win.). 12U also looks competitive but very large and probably should have been two divisions based on the standings. Only Armstrong again looks to have struggled. What am I missing?
March 9Mar 9 Also just to clarify if there is something I'm not getting here like the independent teams have all agreed to play each other or PAHL fees are way too high for the benefit let me know. I'm just looking at standings and 2/3 of the divisions look competitive.
March 10Mar 10 1 hour ago, aaaahockey said: Also just to clarify if there is something I'm not getting here like the independent teams have all agreed to play each other or PAHL fees are way too high for the benefit let me know. I'm just looking at standings and 2/3 of the divisions look competitive. Good points. I was going on my perceptions of seasons past. Your data for this year makes your point. I have know of teams in the past that dominated more than a season.
March 10Mar 10 1 hour ago, Happy Hockey Fan said: Good points. I was going on my perceptions of seasons past. Your data for this year makes your point. I have know of teams in the past that dominated more than a season. Yeah I'm very confused to be honest. More teams going independent will likely kill 19u girls PAHL and water down 14U. 12U - I think this was a tough call by PAHL but they probably should have had two divisions. I think making everything independent is just going to kill girls hockey. But again just my opinion
March 10Mar 10 Author 15 hours ago, aaaahockey said: I'll bite. 19U the vengeance girls seemed to be dominating so maybe I could see it there. 14U looks to be competitive with the exception of Armstrong (lost almost all their games) and SHAHA (Who went undefeated in regular season but lost to #4 in the division who went on to win.). 12U also looks competitive but very large and probably should have been two divisions based on the standings. Only Armstrong again looks to have struggled. What am I missing? The 19U division was pretty much dominated by the 16U Vengeance team. The problem there was that you had Steel City with two tier 2 16U independent Major and Minor teams; Mon Valley with 16U and 19U independent teams (those teams and coaches switched over from the South Pittsburgh organization from the prior season for some reason reason); and Armstrong with a 19U independent team. If those 4 teams of girls had all played PAHL (SCS Minor, Armstrong, and the two Mon Valley teams) you could have had a very competitive division. 14U this past year was super competitive. SHAHA was definitely the best team, but not unbeatable. They were pretty much on par with the Steel City 14U Minor team. Even the Armstrong team at the bottom of the standings had some good competitive games and got stronger as the season went on. Now this season it looks like SHAHA is trying to field two teams, one independent and one PAHL at 14U, we will see how that shakes out. 12U was a mixed bag this year. In several prior seasons PAHL had run Major and Minor 12U girls divisions. This season, after actually doing some placement games, the decision was made to run one large division. This definitely did lead to some very lopsided match ups between the top 4 and the bottom 3 with a few teams in the middle. The SHAHA team was mostly made up of girls from a team that didn't win a game all season in the 4-team Major division the year before, and they ended up winning both the division and the playoffs, so playing against tougher teams can help a team learn and grow. Hopefully if they do run another large 12G division this upcoming season they can get enough teams to join in order to have a 6 team playoff instead of a 4 team bracket (I think they need to get to 11 and they had 10 total last year). Edited March 10Mar 10 by Zarg
March 10Mar 10 Author I should also note, for all the independent tier 2 teams that get formed, they are all basically chasing the Steel City Selects as they have won the Mid-Am district tournament many years running now- MID-AM DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVES 19U Mid-Am district representative at USA Hockey National Championships, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013 16U Mid-Am district representative at USA Hockey National Championships, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 14U Mid-Am district representative at USA Hockey National Championships, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 The word is that the folks at Pens Elite makes sure they are the only Western PA team to get Tier 1 status in the Mid-Am region, so Steel City sits pretty much at the top of tier 2, not just locally, but pretty strong nationally as well. SCS 19U- MHR 90.82, ranked 12th Tier 2 nationally SCS16U Major- MHR 88.81, ranked 24th Tier 2 nationally (6th among teams actually going to Nationals when you take out the Minnesota Prep and Prospect clubs) SCS14U Major- MHR 93.92, ranked 6th nationally (3rd among teams going to Nationals) All three of those teams have MHR ratings that would put them above a handful of Tier 1 teams across the country.
March 11Mar 11 On 3/10/2026 at 10:08 AM, Zarg said: The word is that the folks at Pens Elite makes sure they are the only Western PA team to get Tier 1 status in the Mid-Am region That's an interesting statement, can you elaborate? It does seem suspect that it looks like the SCS 14U major team could have competed against PPE 14u team this past season, yet they remained T2 and just smashed everyone.
March 16Mar 16 Author Open skate for any girls in Northwest PA looking for a team for next season. They have great coaches and have been a solid organization for girl's hockey for quite awhile now.
March 16Mar 16 Author On 3/11/2026 at 11:11 AM, LGP13 said: That's an interesting statement, can you elaborate? It does seem suspect that it looks like the SCS 14U major team could have competed against PPE 14u team this past season, yet they remained T2 and just smashed everyone. From what I understand Midam has to give their “okay” on teams playing tier 1 and they have shut down other organizations who wanted to try to field a Western PA tier 1 girls team outside of Pens Elite. The reason given is because they want to maintain geographic diversity for Ohio and Indiana based players at tier 1 and limit the teams in that category as such.
April 8Apr 8 Author Open Skates tonight and tomorrow (4/8 and 4/9) for Vengeance 14U and 16U teams Westmoreland Girls Tryouts are this Friday, 4/10 for all age levels (12U 6-7PM, 14U 7-8:40PM, 19U 8:50-10:20PM) Armstrong holding 12U Supplemental this Sunday, 4/12 at 12:10PM North Pittsburgh and Arctic Foxes both start their tryouts next week- North Pitt- https://register.teamsnap.com/form/ffmoal678zVYP3PZ0yYlB?fbclid=IwY2xjawRDMA1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF2Vm10akprTTZqSFk5NmlWc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHgtzqnskWaK-FRiwgJa4MXiVFxedLtUzeV1ljOmS-OPxjItNgcfdMIlWNtkd_aem_JBxqLU66P1y9O_JsVlNeyQ Foxes- https://stat.zone/org/activities/?o=1&g=11&fbclid=IwY2xjawRDMCxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF2Vm10akprTTZqSFk5NmlWc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHoF4KSN-1EQHhEQ8ttoLL2l2t9S18T2DUy4xyYdyY7xILE2eALVrqXAtCXn6_aem_uyG7UZjut7tcwvB9aLvbDQ SHAHA still looking for a few more girls to try and field two 14U teams (One Independent National Bound and one PAHL) and start their 12U and 19U tryouts next week. Still no word on Johnstown's plans for the year. Wheeling looks like they will have a 12U team again this season. South Pittsburgh 12U and 14U and Allegheny Badgers 12U and 14U are going on this week. If anyone out there is still looking for a potential team for your girl send me a DM with your location and I can try to put you in touch with a coach in your area.
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