The Latrobe Ice Cats began their preseason with three games at the 2024 St. Margret’s Tournament at the Ice Castle Arena. They took on the Avonnworth Antelopes, the Upper Saint Clair Panthers, and the Shaler Titans. The Cats went 1-2 in these three games with a few tough losses and were eliminated in the round-robin stage of the tournament.
Latrobe opened the tournament with a thrilling shootout win against Avonnworth. Latrobe controlled the pace of the game and were able to prevail in the shootout with the game-winner coming from sophomore defenseman Preston Miller.
The Cats went into their second game with a lot of confidence coming off the big win. This game proved to be a tall task though as the Cats were blindsided by Upper Saint Clair by a final score of 8-0. Upper Saint Clair finished the tournament undefeated in round-robin play and finished 2nd in the tournament after falling to Seneca Valley in the championship game 3-0.
The Cats entered their final game of the round-robin stage against Shaler with a chance to sneak into the playoff rounds, needing a big win to advance. The Cats were in a tight contest all game but a rough 2nd period proved to be enough for the Shaler Titans as they beat the Cats by a score of 5-2.
These games were able to give the younger guys varsity experience and a chance to adapt to the speed of the game at the next level. Senior defenseman Bryant Dumnich said, “The tournament was not the best, our systems were all over the place. We really did not have an identity.” Being a senior on the team, Dumnich was not impressed with the sloppy play. “They had too much puck control…we were not able to capitalize off of rebounds, and those are important. You need to have more time playing offense than you do defense to win hockey games, and we did not do that.”
Dumnich was glad that the team competed in this tournament., it gave the cats an opportunity to find their weaknesses so they could improve before the regular season opener.
Although the tournament was rough for the Cats it was a good experience for the team to begin to mesh together with seven first-year players. “This experience helped the freshman and first-year varsity players learn how to play faster and keep up with the game speed. Not everyone was perfect, but we slowly learned how to play together,” said Dumnich. A long season is ahead for Latrobe as they open PIAA 2A regular season play on October 3 at Kirk S. Nevin Arena against Cathedral Prep.
