The challenge facing the Bethel Park hockey team was considerable.

The Black Hawks were playing against a team that had won each of its previous 23 games by an average of almost six goals per outing, was the top seed and No. 1-ranked team in PIHL Class AAA and was thought of by none other than Black Hawks coach Jim McVay as perhaps the best high school team this area had produced.

So that was quite a task No. 6 seed Bethel Park was embarking on in the Class AAA Penguins Cup championship game last week at Mellon Arena. But the Black Hawks took a 2-0 lead and led going into the third period against a Pine-Richland team it had lost to, 6-1, three months prior -- only to lose, 5-3.

"It's almost tougher emotionally to be outplaying them and establish that we could play with them and lose rather than lose, 8-0," McVay said.

"I'm proud of our team and I think they gave everything they had physically. But I think mentally we made some major mistakes as the game went on. I put that on me. We had a game plan to win, and we showed it would work.

"Really what it came down to is I didn't get it through to them. I give Pine-Richland a lot of credit. They're a good team. We showed we could play with them, but we made some mistakes and they made sure it cost us dearly. We blew a 2-0 lead; I don't know if we've ever had a 2-0 lead and lost."

McVay was told that his team was the second-lowest seed to advance to a Class AAA Penguins Cup final.

"To have a chance to win it, there's something to be said for that," McVay said. "But I'd never be happy if we don't play our best game. If we played our best game and lost, I think I'd be OK.

"People look at who we played and that we had a chance to win and say we should be very happy with it. But if you're happy with it, then you'll be happy with that next year.

"[Losing] shows we have to be better prepared and work harder next year.

"Our three seniors gave everything they had. The other 17 guys, it's not that they didn't give it everything they had, but they know what they have to do to get better and improve from here."

The Penguins Cup final was the last game in a Bethel Park uniform for seniors Chris Mandia and Tyler Trocano -- both forwards -- and defenseman Nick Machi. Trocano led the team in assists during the regular season with 21 and was second in points with 33.

"Those three played a lot of minutes and played very hard and outworked the other team during their shifts," McVay said. "The younger guys can learn from them. They saw what those three can do, how they worked. Not that our younger guys didn't work, but I will say not many of them worked as hard as those three, so they can learn from them."

McVay said that Machi will attend Pitt next year and play for the Panthers club team and that the other two seniors will be able to contribute greatly to any of the other local college programs.

The Black Hawks will be without them next season but still return a nice nucleus. Junior Tom Whetsel led the team in scoring with 43 points, defenseman Zach Blake was selected as an alternate for the PIHL Class AAA All-Star Game, junior Matt Quigley had five goals in four playoff games, and junior goalie Ben Garcia allowed only 10 goals in 15 playoff periods.

Those players will likely form the core of next season's team. But if McVay has his way, you won't have to wait until the season starts in October for the next time they are together.

"One of the things I said to them after the game was that you win games in March the summer before," McVay said. "We'll take a little time away from it, but if you don't start working again until August, you won't be anywhere in March.

"Hockey is not a sport nowadays that you can put your skates away and don't put them back on until it gets cold.

"You need to work and lift and do those things. I really think last summer we did not work hard enough, and that's one of the things that cost us in the third period."