Mar 28, 2022 4 min read

There is a strong bond, seemingly unbreakable, between Pittsburgh sports fans and their favorite teams. If you want proof, just look at the crowd at a Steelers or Penguins home game – thousands of fans wearing Pittsburgh jerseys.

Sports fans just can’t get enough of their favorite teams and their uniforms. That’s why they purchase those jerseys, T-shirts, hats and other pieces of team merchandise.

That’s also why an event unique to the area, to be held in Washington in May, could be of interest to hockey fans. The Pittsburgh Game-Worn Hockey Jersey and Equipment Expo is scheduled for May 7 (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) at the Ramada Inn on West Chestnut Street.

“It will be mainly game-used NHL and minor-league jersey and equipment on display,” says Al Astorina of Houston, who is organizing the event.

“There will be jerseys, sticks, goalie pads, goalie helmets and some other things on display and for sale.”

Astorina has been a collector of hockey memorabilia for decades. He has run several equipment expos in Wheeling but this will be his first in Washington.

“The idea for this actually started 20 years ago in Detroit. It was a bunch of guys getting together at an expo showing off their collections. … I have done seven of these shows over the years in Wheeling. For Pittsburgh, this is the first.

“I started collecting in 1995 and I wish I had started sooner. I used to go to (Wheeling) Thunderbirds games back in the day. I ran into a couple of people selling Thunderbirds merchandise, then I was hooked. The collectors market is starting to come back, but it’s not like it was in the 1990s. Every city used to have one of these shows. I used to go to 16 or 17 a year. Business and interest is slowly coming back.”

Astorina said he has room for 25 vendor tables, of which 17 have been booked. They include vendors from Philadelphia, Detroit, Buffalo, Columbus, Virginia and, of course, Pittsburgh.

“We should have all 25 filled. You know, people today don’t like to commit to things six week in advance,” Astorina said. “Hockey fans like to see jerseys and equipment, and you can see them on television during games. But when you see those things up close, see what they’re all about, it’s totally different.”

• Peters Township won the Class 3A state hockey championship, defeating Malvern Prep, 5-4, in West Chester.

It is the sixth state championship for Peters Township and the first since 2017.

After a wild first period ended with the score tied 3-3, the Indians won with a pair of second-period goals. Austin Malley’s power-play goal midway through the period tied the score at 4-4. William Tomko’s goal with 3:11 left in the period gave PT a 5-4 lead.

Goaltender Nolan Hilbert, who stopped 35 shots, kept Malvern Prep scoreless in the third period.

• Nothing in sports makes less sense than the current setup in Pennsylvania, where private (non-boundary) schools play in the same postseason tournaments with public schools. This was evident during last week’s PIAA basketball championships, where non-boundary schools won 10 of the 12 championships, sparking calls for reform.

PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi called such remarks “sour grapes.”

Lombardi said the PIAA will not hold separate postseason tournaments unless the legislature forces such action. Lombardi said he was told that there would be an immediate discrimination lawsuit filed against the PIAA if such a change was made.

In other words, “sour grapes” is code for “we messed this up years ago, and because of that we don’t have a legal leg to stand on.”

• California University women’s basketball junior forward Dejah Terrell was one of 10 players named to the NCAA Division II All-America team. Terrell ranked fourth in the Atlantic Region in scoring (18.6 points per game) and finished among the top 10 in the region with 9.7 rebounds per game. Terrell also ranked No. 12 in the country with 2.63 blocks per game.