Team Pittsburgh wins Chicago Showcase with a 5-4 Shootout Win over Wisconsin

Congratulations go out to Team Pittsburgh for their exciting 5-4 Shootout win over Wisconsin to capture the 2007 Chicago Invitational Showcase. Team Pittsburgh is a collection of the top high school hockey players in Western Pennsylvania that compete each year in this prestigious national hockey tournament.

This Tournament features teams representing the best hockey players from various STATES around the country, like Team Minnesota, Team Michigan, etc. Over 20+ years ago, when the tournament went to a "state team" format, Team Pittsburgh was grandfathered into the tournament and really is one of only 2 or 3 teams that are comprised from a much more limited selection area than most of the teams they are competing against.

Which is why it is so remarkable that this local band of competitors was able to capture this title over some of the best state selected all star teams in the country.!

Throughout the years, Team Pittsburgh has been peppered with many players from the Pittsburgh Hornets As the premier Tier 1 AAA hockey association in Western Pennsylvania, the Hornets support all of our regional hockey endeavors and thus our congratulations go out to all of the players on this years team and to head coach Jim Mcvay and his coaching staff, and General Manager Gina Colligan and General Manager "Emeritus" Dave Klasnick (former President of the Pittsburgh Hornets) for all their hard work as well in helping this championship dream become a reality.

Reprinted below is an article from Mike White of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette containing some more details of this great accomplishment. Way to go Team Pittsburgh, Way to go !!!

Hockey: Team Pittsburgh finally earns title after 23 years
All-star hockey squad ends drought in Chicago
Tuesday, April 24, 2007By Mike White, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Only weeks after the Penguins' excellent regular season, Western Pennsylvania hockey got another shot in the arm at another level this past weekend when a group of high school players won a national all-star tournament.

Team Pittsburgh won the Chicago Showcase in Bensenville, Ill. The 24-team event included squads from Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, New England and Wisconsin. Team Pittsburgh won the championship Sunday with a 5-4 shootout victory against Team Wisconsin.

Team Pittsburgh included 20 players from 14 different schools. The players were picked after a four-day tryout in March.

This was the 23rd Chicago Showcase and Pittsburgh had sent a team every year under general manager Dave Klasnick, but this was the first time Team Pittsburgh came home with a championship. Klasnick was still involved with the team this year, but gave up the GM title to Gina Colligan.

Jim McVay, Bethel Park's highly successful coach, was Team Pittsburgh's coach, and Dave Fryer of Canon-McMillan was the assistant.
"This is just a huge thing for the Pittsburgh area," McVay said. "We had been knocking on the door and to finally come through is really amazing."

McVay compared Team Pittsburgh to the Pennsylvania team that plays in the Big 33 all-star football game every summer.

"Winning this [Chicago Showcase] would be like the Pennsylvania Big 33 team beating a bunch of other Big 33 teams around the country," McVay said. "That's how big this was."

Team Pittsburgh started the tournament Wednesday with a 4-1 loss to Team Michigan. But Team Pittsburgh then won five games in a row to take home the title, including four one-goal games.

"The funny thing is, we watched some other teams with kids who are getting Division I college offers," McVay said. "We had 20 kids, and hopefully one will go Division I at some point, but we just had 20 very good players."

North Allegheny's Max Richards and Rob Behling each played goalie for three games. Four Bethel Park players made the team. Some of the top players were West Allegheny's Ryan Kumpfmiller, Pine-Richland's Phil Trombetta, Bethel Park's David Spadacene and Kenny Lehmann, and Freeport's Zach Hepler.

The team's leading scorer was Central Catholic's Chris Urso, who had four goals and four assists. Kumpfmiller, Spadacene and Trombetta had five points each in the tournament.

"Some of these kids will hopefully move on to Juniors," McVay said. "But no matter what they do in the future, or what level they make, this was always be something great for them to remember."

Other players were Tyler Urda, Serra; Nick Jones, Seneca Valley; Mike Roman, Mt. Lebanon; Kevin Bishop, Montour; Tim McDonough, Franklin Regional; Logan Bannon, Bethel Park; Bryan Brown, Bethel Park; Morgan Nickerson, Meadville; Luke Killmeyer, Meadville; Jonathan Lohman, Upper St. Clair; Matt Jarrett, Seneca Valley; and Nick Vukemaravich, Greensburg Central Catholic.