Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

CPIHL PLAYOFFS

Streaks, Comets, L-S, Bears advance County puts four teams in semifinals

Dalton Dougherty's thoughts were pretty much the same as those of his teammates.

"We've got to get a goal,'' the Manheim Township senior center recalled thinking.

With 1:04 to play in the third period, Dougherty slipped a wrist shot past screened Cedar Crest goalie Dylan Holst to give the Blue Streaks a 5-4 come-from-behind victory in the first round of the double-elimination Central Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League Tier 2 playoffs Friday night at the Lancaster Ice Rink.

The victory sends Township to the semifinals where it will meet Palmyra, a 9-6 upset winner over Red Land, on Wednesday at a time and rink to be determined.

Joining Township in the semifinals will be Penn Manor, which dispatched Ephrata 10-2 in the early game Friday. Jason Green scored five goals for the top-seeded Comets and teammate Matt Gue scored four. Manor advances to meet Lampeter-Strasburg, which defeated Annville-Cleona 4-3. That game is also slated for Wednesday with the time and rink to be determined.

In Tier 1, Elizabethtown, seeded seventh, upset No. 2 seed Wilson 6-4 to advance. The Bears will take on Hershey, a 7-2 winner over Mechanicsburg, Wednesday.

But back to Township, which was down 3-1 midway though the second period. The Blue Streaks (15-2-2) had a territorial advantage through most of the game and were way ahead on shots, outshooting the Falcons 38-16 in the game.

But Holst was holding the Blue Streaks at bay and the Falcons (8-10-1), who lost to to Township twice during the regular season, were making the most of their relatively few chances.

"We were getting chances but nothing was going in,'' said Township coach Kevin Dean. "We just told the guys to stick with it and not get discouraged.''

Cedar Crest's Alec Baum redirected a point shot past Township goalie Brandon Davis on a power play to give the Falcons a 3-1 lead in the second period.

But Township's Steven Burnett narrowed the lead to one less than a minute later with a sharp angle goal and the Streaks' Noah Bradley tied the game, going high to the long side to beat Holst.

Township completed the three goals in a four-minute span, taking a 4-3 lead when Ricky Beauchamp banged home Chad Neiss' pass from close range.

Crest's Jake Horacek then took advantage of a power play to jam the puck past Davis on a scramble in front of the net to re-tie the game at 4-4 early in the third.

As the third period wore on, Township kept putting more heat on Holst. The goalie got some body part on Erik Stager's breakaway shot with 2:37 top go and Stager just missed the game-winner when he rang a shot off the post with 2:25 to play.

Dougherty's goal was the result of that added pressure.

Penn Manor (15-2-2) scored three power-play goals in a span of 3:30 in the second period en route to overwhelming the Mounts (6-10-2). Green had two of them and Gue the other on the way to their big games.

"A lot of teams doubted that we were a (legitimate) top seed,'' Green said. "We're trying to prove we're the best team out there. We're trying to make a statement.''

Trevor Seibel and Josh Buohl scored for Ephrata, which heads to the elimination bracket to play Annville-Cleona on Monday.

Ian Keene keyed Lampeter-Strasburg's victory over A-C by making 31 saves. The Pioneers took a 4-2 lead on Josh Wright's goal in the third period and held on. Dylan Garrett scored a short-handed goal for the Pioneers.

E-town got third-period goals from Justin Drescher and Cassidy Galeone to break a 4-4 tie with Wilson. Tyler Cottle made 21 saves for the Bears.

kfreeman@lnpnews.com