By Dominick DiRienzo
November 17, 2009 — For Meadville coach Jamie Plunkett and the Bulldogs, Monday’s tie with Chartiers Valley was an emotional whirlwind.
The Bulldogs went from staring at two points in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League Class AA standings to hanging on for a draining, white-knuckle one-point tie.
But for Chartiers Valley coach Lou Biancaniello in the third period and overtime, there was an overriding emotion — satisfaction.
“We would have loved to have gotten that win, but we told our guys, ‘You are always happy when you can get out of Meadville with a point,’” Biancaniello said.
The 3-3 tie at DeArment Ice Arena was more hollow for the Bulldogs, whose winless streak has grown to three straight game (0-2-1).
“We definitely felt like we let one slip away,” said Meadville senior Clayton Stockton, who had a goal and an assist. “We felt like we were a better team and we should have handed it to them a little bit better.”
Chartiers Valley sophomore Justin Sabilla’s second goal of the game with 33.9 seconds tied the score at 3.
“(Justin Sabilla) is a clutch kid,” Biancaniello said.
Just prior to Sabilla’s game-changing sprint up ice, Meadville couldn’t punch a goal into an empty.
That wasn’t much different than the rest of the game as the Bulldogs peppered Chartiers Valley goalie Marty Gudewicz with 50 shots in the game.
Not a bad game for a netminder that came into the game with a 7.20 goals against average and stopping just 81 percent of the shots he faced.
“He came to me and said, ‘Coach give a chance, have some faith in me.’ I said. ‘You are going to get your chance in Meadville,’” Biancaniello said.
Gudewicz didn’t waste his opportunity.
Chartiers Valley ended the scoring, but it also started the scoring.
Shea Waldron gave the Colts (3-2-1 PIHL) a 1-0 lead just 3:28 into the game. Sabilla’s first goal put the Colts up 2-0 with 4:07 left.
Meadville speedster Bill Espy, who figured in all three of Meadville’s goals, cut the deficit in half quickly off a feed from Stockton 10 seconds later.
Meadville dominated the play in the second period and turned that into two goals. The first was on a picture-perfect feed from Espy that Stockton jammed home with 1:41 left in the second period. Shortly after that, Drew Finton whipped home a dandy spinning backhanded goal with 20 seconds left in the period for a 3-2 Meadville lead.
Meadville had the better of the play throughout the third period, outshooting the Colts, 13-7, but Gudewicz was up to the challenge.
“If we win the game great,” Biancaniello said. “That’s what we came here to do, but if we lose it we are going to walk out of here proud, knowing we gave it our all.”
And while Plunkett was disappointed with the final outcome, he said he was not unhappy with the effort his team gave.
Meadville outshot Chartiers Valley, 50-20.
“The shots were 50-20 so no fault there,” Plunkett said.
In the overtime, Meadville started with a power play, but did not generate many chances and then had to kill off two different Chartiers’ power plays that consumed 3:23 of the overtime.
Chartiers Valley nearly pulled the game when they hit a post on a late flurry in OT.
“We caught a break there,” Plunkett said. “We had our opportunities.”
Notes: Defenseman Logan Devore missed the game serving a suspension for getting too many penalties in Sunday’s 5-3 loss to Padua. ... Freshman Robbie Stainbrook played in the Bulldogs two games over the weekend and played in his first PIHL game of the season after missing the preseason and the first six games of the season with a knee injury. ... The Bulldogs are off until Monday when they travel to Bishop Canevin (5-1) and then host Peters Township (5-0) on Wednesday, Nov. 25. Espy had one goal and two assists. ... Chartiers Valley won just five games last season.
