Seniors lead young ’Dogs to win over Indians

By Matthew Digiacomo -Meadville Tribune

Oct 2, 2018

There is no question that the Meadville hockey team is in the midst of a youth movement. All one needs to do is look at the roster of 21 players, and what stands out is that 14 of those players are either sophomores or freshmen.

But during Monday night’s season opener against North Hills at George S. DeArment Ice Arena, the veterans took center stage. Led by senior Nick Frantz’s hat trick and another stellar game in net by senior goalie Eddie Kaufman, the Bulldogs opened the season with a 4-1 win over the Indians. But it was not an easy victory by any means.

“Right now we are going to rely a lot on Cohl Weber, Nick Frantz and Brendan Leech,” said head coach Jamie Plunkett. “Those three have to lead the way offensively, and then hope we get contributions from guys like Ryan Schepelmann and John Grasinger, second-year kids.”

Frantz made his coach’s faith pay off early.

After a few back and forth rushes, junior Cohl Weber found Frantz in front and hit him with a perfect pass. Meadville’s three-time scoring leader knew just what to do with it, beating North Hills goalie Ethan Isaly to make it a 1-0 game with 9:52 to play in the first period.

The next goal was simply Frantz being Frantz. With The Bulldogs a man down, the captain picked off a clearing pass at the blue line, skated in and deked to his left. When Isaly went for the deke, Frantz pulled the puck back and beat the Indian to the right side for a 2-0 Meadville lead.

“I’m trying to put some pucks in the net this year to go after (coach Scott) Phillis’ record,” said Frantz, who now trails the Bulldog great by 47 goals. “So it was nice to get off to a quick start. And nice to get a win in the opener.”

It was not over for Frantz.

In the second period, North Hills played with much more defensive intensity. Meadville still got off a lot of shots — 27 to be exact — but most were harmless. However, Weber found Frantz again late in the period and Frantz put home his third for the natural hat trick with just 2.6 seconds left on the clock.

Besides his three goals, Frantz showed the other reasons he is wearing the ‘C’ on his sweater. Several times he passed up a shot to look for a younger player, often trying to get all his teammates involved.

“I am just trying to get other people open,” said Frantz. “Try and get (the defense) to collapse to one side and then find the open guy on the other side. Set up that backdoor pass. Sometimes it works and sometimes you can’t get the (defense) caught over there.

“There is a lot of extra pressure this year (as the captain),” added Frantz. “But I think I thrive under pressure.”

The rest was up to Kaufman.

Through the first two periods, the netminder had made 15 saves. But he was about to get a lot more pressure after the final break.

North Hills proved it was no pushover throughout the game, but especially in the final 17 minutes. The Indians forced the action early in the final stanza, and it finally paid off when Ian Keller scored at the 13:57 mark off a pass from Theodore Kiger. It was the only blemish to an otherwise perfect night for Kaufman.

“I feel good about our goaltending situation,” said Plunkett. “Eddie made some tough saves in there (Monday night).”

And it was also a nearly perfect night for that talented group of youngsters.

“We got a long ways to go,” said Plunkett. “But we had a bunch of kids get their first varsity action. For them to come out, get some experience and be a part of a win is a big plus.”

Schepelmann took a pass from Parker Higham to cap the scoring with 9:50 to play in the final stanza.

Isaly played a magnificent game for the Indians, almost single handedly keeping his team in the game. And while he gave up four goals — three to one of the best scorers in the PIHL — he did make an astounding 50 saves in net.

“I think we were all a little guilty at looking what (North Hills’) record at double A was last year,” said Plunkett. “They have some kids that have some skill. I think they are going to win their share of games this year.”

see it on the website: http://www.meadvilletribune.com/sports/seniors-lead-young-dogs-to-win-over-indians/article_62424ac6-c5ef-11e8-a15d-2399f121134e.html