Week 6 Recap from Pittsburgh   

A highly anticipated and fan favorite tour stop lived up to the hype surrounding Week 6 where Team Trottier earned another championship win. 3ICE made a pitstop at PPG Paints Arena in the Steel City and in the words of Craig Patrick, “it was the biggest crowd we’ve had thus far which is amazing.” 

“It's awesome and it's like a home game,” Patrick said. “A lot of us have a connection here with the coaches, Eddie Johnston, and his son, EJ. We have a lot of ties to the city of Pittsburgh and it’s just great to be here.” 

In Pittsburgh fashion, it was Team Black (Team LeClair) versus Team Yellow (Team Mullen) in Game 1. Patrick Mullen opened the scoring for Team Yellow, and the scoring only took off from there to advance Team Mullen to the semifinals with an 8-2 win. Team Murphy and Team Carbonneau, last weekend’s champion, took the ice for the second game of the afternoon. After being scoreless for about five minutes after the puck dropped, Team Murphy broke the silence on the scoreboard which sparked them to get a 4-1 victory over Team Carbonneau. The fans continued to welcome players and coaches with Pittsburgh ties to the ice in Game 3 between Team Trottier and Team Fuhr. Team Trottier got on the board early on, went into the second half with a 4-0 lead, and built on that to land a spot in the semifinals with a final score of 6-2. 

“It's great to be back obviously,” Pittsburgh native and former Penguin, Ryan Malone said. “It's crazy when you kind of dig a little deeper into how exactly I fell in love with the game. A lot of these people around influenced my passion for it, so to be a part of this and grow the game of hockey is very special to me.” 

The excitement grew game after game which was evident throughout the energetic crowd. That energy and excitement kept up when they welcomed Team Murphy and Team Mullen back to the ice for the first semifinal game. After a dominant performance in their first game, Team Mullen was held scoreless by Team Murphy who moved onto the finals with their 4-0 shutout win. The second semifinal game was a rematch between Team Fuhr and Team Trottier. With a shot at redemption on the line, Team Fuhr responded to Team Trottier’s opening goal. However, former Penguin, Bobby Farnham, broke the tie, and his game-winning advanced Team Trottier to the final with a 3-1 victory. 

“I’ve been sitting in the crowd and it's fun to listen to the oh and ahs, and all the cheers,” Patrick said. “There have been great saves, highlight reel goals, and it's just fun to be here enjoying it with the fans.” 

After a few back-and-forth goals to start the final between Team Trottier and Team Murphy, it was anybody’s game. Two goals from Chad Costello gave Team Trottier their first lead of the game, and a game-changing performance in net from Parker Milner tilted the ice in favor of Team Trottier to crown the Blue Team champions for the second time this season.
“Excellent effort by all my players,” Trottier said. “It was definitely our goalie Parker Milner’s best performance, so I was glad for him.”