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Hartman outduels Crum to lead Tigers over Lions

Altoona's Ricky Crum looks to get by Hollidaysburg's Cam Creamer. / Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

It was almost 16 years ago that Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and the Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin both registered hat tricks in the same game, during their dramatic playoff series before the Penguins went on to win that best-of-7 and their third Stanley Cup Championship.

Thursday night at Galactic Ice, Hollidaysburg and Altoona fans were treated to a similar feat by the Golden Tigers’ Cole Hartman and the Mountain Lions’ Ricky Crum. In fact, they both scored four goals.

It would be Cole Hartman’s side, however, that got the edge in the end as he also added three assists while also scoring the game winner on a power play with just over a 1:30 to play in regulation as the Golden Tigers hung on for the 8-7 win in the Laurel Mountain Hockey League match up.

“We needed somebody to be that player, to match their Ricky Crum,” Hollidaysburg coach Joe Duey said. “He happened to be the guy tonight, and thank God he was. We’re very happy.”

That completed another season series sweep in each of the three meetings.

Altoona controlled the pace for much of the first period, as Cayden Helsel early in the first period with a scoring chance was turned away by Noah Breton.

That helped set up Noah Staines on a feed from Carter Panick to put the Mountain Lions on the board.

The Golden Tigers responded, though, as on the man advantage Isaac Miller took a pass from Hartman and on the wrist shot tied the game at one.

Crum answered as he went top shelf on a backhander to give the Mountain Lions at 2-1 lead at the first intermission.

“There was just too many opportunities wasted,” Altoona coach Don Burgmeier said. “We just didn’t finish. You can’t have one line doing all your producing. You’ve got to get secondary scoring, and we weren’t getting it from anybody. We just kept taking penalties, and letting them hang around.”

The Golden Tigers kept it close, thanks to goalie Noah Breton who stopped 12 of the Mountain Lions first-period attempts as they outshot the Tigers by a staggering margin of 14-5.

“He kept us in this game,” Duey said of the Golden Tigers netminder. “He made some of the saves that probably should’ve gone in. They didn’t, and we’re glad they didn’t. He stood tall.”

Altoona ended up registering 44 shots on goal to Hollidaysburg’s 35.

Moving to the second period,that was when play evened out — with three goals answered no more than roughly 1:30 minutes apart. Crum took a feed from Staines which Hartman answered 35 seconds later.

Hollidaysburg tied the game as Hartman followed up another Crum marker before Jayden Mentzer leveled the game on a rebound at four.

Panick gave the Mountain Lions the lead on a pass from Iain McHenry, followed up by another Crum score with under seven minutes in the second. Hartman registered his third about a minute later.

“We needed our veteran players to step up, we needed them to get their motors going,” Duey said. “We also needed help from our ninth and 10th graders, too. From there on, the second period it started turning around, third period is when it really happened. That’s when we got the depth, we got everybody just firing on all cylinders.”

The Golden Tigers took control of the game from there in the third as Mentzer scored on a wrister from Carter Hartman to tie the game at six, and Miller added a second to even the game again at seven.

SCORE BY PERIOD

Hollidaysburg 1 4 3 – 8

Altoona 2 4 1 – 7

First Period: 1,) A – Staines (Panick), 4:00; 2,) H – Miller (Co. Hartman), 10:18 PP, 3,) A – Crum (Staines, Panick), 13:23.

Second Period: 4,) A – Crum (Staines), 1:24; 5,) H – Co. Hartman (unassisted), 1:59; 6,) A – Crum (Piper), 4:48, 7,) H – Co. Hartman (Weise), 6:22; 8,) H – Mentzer (Co. Hartman), 9:48; 9,) A – Panick (McHenry), 10:21; 10,) A – Crum (Staines), 11:01; 11,) H – Co. Hartman (Mentzer), 12:01

Third Period: 12,) H – Mentzer (Ca. Hartman), 3:06; 13,) A – Panick (Staines), 5:46; 14,) H – Miller (Co. Hartman, Ca. Hartman), 7:02 PP; 15,) H – Hartman (Weise, Miller), 15:27 PP.

Goalies: Breton, H, 37-44; Criste, A, 27-35.

Power Plays: Hollidaysburg 3-for-3; Altoona 0-for-2

Records: Hollidaysburg (7-5-0), Altoona (7-6-0)

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