Last season, the Allegheny Badgers Midget U16 AA team won the Pittsburgh Amateur Hockey League regular season title, finished second in the playoffs and went on to win the Tier II state championship.

Eleven players from that team, including several local skaters, moved up to the Badgers Midget U18 AA squad and are succeeding again on the ice.

The team is 11-3-4 in the PAHL U18 AA standings and is in position to grab one of the four spots for the playoffs, which are scheduled for March 1 and 2 at BladeRunners in Marshall.

The Badgers outshot Wheeling 44-20. Patrick Damp, a junior at Penn Hills, scored one of the three goals in the game for the Badgers.

"Wheeling's goaltender played lights out against us," said Jim Damp, Badgers head coach.

The Badgers rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the third period against Armstrong on Sunday. Gateway student J.J. Mignogna scored both third-period goals for the Badgers.

"We struggled early on and then played the third period like a championship team," coach Damp said.

The Badgers close out their PAHL regular season on Feb. 23 and 24 against Altoona and Cambria, respectively. Both games are at Center Ice Arena in Delmont.

In addition to Mignogna and Damp, eight other players on the Badgers are from local schools.

On the team are Plum seniors John Bronder (goalie) and Anthony Sciulli, as well as Penn-Trafford's Dan Hrovath (senior), B.J. Zagorac (junior) and Rob Maier (junior), Franklin Regional's Anthony Livecchi (senior) and Norwin's Steve Saksa (junior).

The Badgers sport an overall record of 22-5-8 for the 2007-08 season.

They have won three tournaments, including their own tournament over Thanksgiving.

The Badgers captured the Three Rivers Cup over Labor Day weekend. They went 3-0-2 and beat a team from Cleveland in the finals.

At the Steel City Preseason Challenge the last weekend in September, the Badgers finished 4-1 and beat a team from the South Hills in the finals.

The Badgers hosted their Thanksgiving tournament at Center Ice and went 3-0-1 in four games. The team defeated a team from Mt. Lebanon in the championship game.