Tonight is the night.

North Allegheny’s Ice Hockey Team has had a sensational season, and it’s not over yet.  The boys continue to push through the barriers of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League and are looking to hoist the Penguins Cup this evening. With an overall record of 14 wins and 4 losses, the squad is on its way to the championship after beating Bethel Park, 2-1, last Thursday in the semifinals.

And as fate would have it, this evening on the ice at the Class AAA Penguins Cup Finals the Tigers will face off against a team they know all too well, the Peters Township Indians.

Yet the emotional overtime win against Bethel has the boys feeling more confident than ever.

“We played hard even though most of us were feeling sick and tired after two and a half hours,” Dylan Watkins said. “We fought through and played for the seniors on the team to get the win.”

NA’s Hockey Team has not been to the Cup title match since the 2015-2016 season, which concluded in an overtime loss to Cathedral Prep, and has not won the title since 2013. It comes as no surprise that the boys are looking at tonight’s match up as an opportunity for redemption — all the more so because NA has lost to Peters in the semifinals the past two years.

“We are all really looking forward to playing Peters Township,” Vincenzo Mazur said. “They have been a challenge for us the past couple years, but we are all really confident that we can shut them down. We have been constantly conditioning and practicing since August leading up to this moment.” 

Hobbled with injuries at the beginning of the year, the Tigers knew that the upcoming season was going to be unpredictable. Yet by treating practice as seriously as they treat games, learning from past mistakes, and working to make the team stronger as one, the boys see the final game tonight as the culmination of a season-long determination.

“We are super excited to make the championship, and we are ecstatic to have the opportunity to get revenge on Peters because they beat us in the semifinals the past two years,” Tyler Duderstadt said.

NA faces off against Peters Township this evening at 8:30pm at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry. The Student Section has announced a Blackout Theme, and the event is currently sold out.  Anyone without a ticket should contact the Athletic Office to see if extra tickets are now available.  There will be no tickets sold at the rink.  Alternatively, fans without tickets may listen to a live broadcast through the Athletics Department.

The excitement is palpable, and the desire for revenge cannot be any sharper.  This is a game not to be missed.

“We are glad to see that our hard work has paid off, and we are prepared to leave everything out on the ice tonight,” Mazur added.