America’s Showcase Day #5

Sunday was a great day for the HS team from the Philadelphia area as we won the Showcase championship 5-3 over the host Pittsburgh team. The game got off to a rocky start for us when we gave up a goal just 51 seconds into the period. Pittsburgh was flying after that and really giving us a hard time. We kept telling our guys to just hang tough and play hard. We tied the game at the 7:38 mark and then put two behind the Pittsburgh netminder at 13:32 and 13:48 to take a 3-1 lead. Unfortunately a letdown on defense off the ensuing face-off led to a Pittsburgh goal at 14:02. So much for a nice two goal cushion! We scored again with just 53 seconds to go in the period and took a 4-2 lead after one period of play.

The second period was a better all around period for both teams as we settled in after some obvious nerves early on. Pittsburgh scored the only goal of the period and after two we held a 4-3 lead. The third period had 7 penalties and a player from Pittsburgh ejected. We scored our fifth goal of the game at the 8:35 mark to get back the two goal lead and then just kept the puck deep and played strong defense to finish out the game.

Jonathan Ruiz from our club led the tournament in goals with 7 and Trevor Gooch led with 12 points. Very proud of the effort by the team and to be a part of the first team Philadelphia championship in the Showcase long history (used to be the Chicago Showcase).

I want to thank Jerry Domish and Dave Baun for making me part of the coaching staff and I want to thank all the coaches who tracked me down during the event to talk about this website. I had some really great conversations and met a bunch of great coaches who use this site on a regular basis.

Karl Reidel (aka..Gregg Riddle)

Bill Thompson

Chuck Hergenroeder

Dave Katsisas

Andy Glenn

Tom Simpson

Dale Jennings

Paul K (not even going to try your  last name!)

Thanks again guys it was a great time in Pittsburgh. Also one last thank you to John our bus driver who stayed with us all five days and got us everywhere we needed to go safe and sound.