Forgive the Plum hockey team for having a feeling of invincibility -- and having it at just the right time, the start of the PIHL Class AAA Penguins Cup playoffs.

Not only are the Mustangs riding a 12-1-1 run that improved their record to 15-4-3 to end the regular season, their final four games all involved third-period comebacks against playoff teams.

"We're a lot better than we were at the beginning of the year," senior goalie Shane Leonzio said. "We're a whole different team.

"I think we can beat anyone now, if we play our game."

Plum opens the postseason at 8 tonight against Mt. Lebanon at the Valley Sports Complex in New Kensington.

In their previous four games, the Mustangs came back from down, 2-0, to Upper St. Clair for a 4-3 win Feb 18; rallied from a 1-0 deficit going into the third for a 2-1 win against Bethel Park four days later; earned a 3-3 tie against Erie McDowell on March 1 after finding themselves down, 3-0, in the final period and scored the final three tallies of a 3-2 overtime win at State College last Thursday despite trailing by two in the third.

"They're playing extremely well right now," Plum coach Stu Rulnick said. "We've had some late-game heroics."

The 14-game sustained surge of excellence since Dec. 4 -- the Mustangs allowed more than two goals in a game only twice over that time span -- led to Plum having tied for the second-most points (33 in 22 games) of any team in Class AAA.

"There are a bunch of overachievers on this team," Rulnick said. "We weren't picked to be anywhere. We weren't on anybody's radar anywhere all season. But the kids worked hard and overachieved and got better. They played extremely hard every game."

Leonzio stopped all 15 shots he faced the previous time Plum faced No. 5 seed Mt. Lebanon (9-12-2 after a 1-0 overtime play-in game win against Pine-Richland Saturday), a 1-0 win Jan. 25 that was one of Leonzio's four shutouts this season.

Leonzio, who was selected as a PIHL Class AAA All-Star, had a goals-against average of less than 2.90 and a save percentage close to .900 in the regular season, his second as a starter after posting similar numbers last season. He was a part-time starter as a sophomore and appeared in seven games as a freshman.

"I told him at the beginning of the year, with him being a senior this year, that he will take us as far as he can go," Rulnick said. "He has played unbelievably for a while now -- with consistency all year. That's the thing with Shane, maybe he was a little inconsistent last year. But he's been extremely consistent this year. There's been a big difference, and hopefully we can ride on his shoulders and he can carry us into the playoffs."

Plum is perturbed it was given the No. 5 seed in the playoffs despite the fact it beat Upper St. Clair and State College and has more points than the latter and the same as the former.

"We're all frustrated about it," Leonzio said, "but it's helped us get more motivated to go out and win."

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