During the regular season, the Franklin Regional hockey team was one of the most penalized in all of Class AA. While the Panthers were often able to overcome that issue up to this point, it proved extremely costly in the PIHL Class AA Penguins Cup Championship on Tuesday.

Two powerplay goals by Thomas Jefferson early in the third period gave the top-seeded Jaguars the spark they needed, as they scored five unanswered, the last of which came seconds into overtime, to claim a 6-5 triumph at the UPMC Lemieux Complex in Cranberry.

Heading into the third period, the second-seeded Panthers looked vastly superior. Keyed by a pair of their own powerplay tallies, the Panthers led 5-1 at the intermission.

But the third began with three FR penalties in the first three minutes, as leading scorer Chase Williams was called for a boarding and an accompanying 10-minute misconduct, followed by minor penalties Roman Cicco and Zach Abdallah. That allowed Thomas Jefferson’s Ty Rayman and Colby Bilski to light the lamp, making it 5-3 and changing the outlook drastically.

“Those penalties, they shifted the momentum to their side – made it difficult to come back from,” said Franklin Regional head coach John Winebrenner.

Although Franklin Regional still held the lead, the confidence with which Panthers played for the first two frames appeared to slip away. As a result, TJ scored another goal near the halfway point of the period, courtesy of Lance Smith. Then with less than five minutes left in regulation, Rayman capitalized on a defensive-zone turnover to deadlock the contest at 5-5.

“They were getting a little tight, making some more mistakes than what we did in the first,” Winebrenner said of his group.

Just 46 seconds into the overtime, Scotty Allan had two point-blank shots, the second of which found the net for the winning goal.

The Panthers finished as the runners up for the second consecutive year, falling to top-seeded Baldwin 2-0 in the title game in 2021.

“It was extremely tough for this crew, because we were there last year – same outcome. This year, they wanted it so bad, and they were working hard for it,” Winebrenner said, particularly highlighting his 12 seniors who played their final high-school game.

“We had a tremendous season, for sure, and it wasn’t how we wanted the outcome to be, but that one had to go one way or the other. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong end,” he continued.

The outcome overshadowed an outstanding second period for Franklin Regional, which outscored Thomas Jefferson 4-1. After Zach Abdallah scored the only goal in the first period on the powerplay, Max Rutkowski scored on a perfectly-placed shot under the crossbar on a partial breakaway to give FR a 2-0 edge. Although Ryder McGuirk put the Jaguars on the board, the Panthers responded with consecutive goals by Matty Knizner, Luke Beatty, and Ben Yurko, the last of which also came on the man advantage.

“Our powerplay, we’ve been working on that one all season, and it’s worked quite well for us. We had a lot of confidence in it,” Winebrenner detailed.

In the defeat, Abdallah, Beatty, and Knizner each contributed a goal and an assist, while Alex Rauber made 23 saves in net for FR.

Thomas Jefferson was led by Lance Smith and Jake Stock, each of whom compiled three points. Between the pipes, Billy Siemon earned the win, making 22 stops.

Thomas Jefferson captured its fourth Penguins Cup Championship, although the first since 2000. Franklin Regional, meanwhile, was denied its third title, with the Panthers winning gold in 2016 and 2017.