It was a busy two days for Woonsocket High School goaltender Nick Beals in the Division III hockey quarterfinals against the Johnston/North Providence Co-op team, as the Panthers/Cougars put 54 shots on net in game one of their best-of-three series, en route to a 3-0 win last Friday night at the Rhode Island Sports Center in North Smithfield. JNP would continue its onslaught of Beals the following night at Mount Saint Charles’ Adelard Arena. In game two, JNP put 67 shots on net in a convincing 7-0 victory that clinched the series for JNP and a date with the second-seeded Ponaganset Chieftains tomorrow night at Burrillville’s Levy Rink.
“That goalie (Beals) can play in any division on any team,” said JNP coach Stephen Morrison. “He is a very good goaltender and we were worried he would steal away the game from us tonight.”
That was not the case, as JNP out-shot the Villa Novans 121-19 in those two quarterfinal games, playing the majority of the time in the Woonsocket zone. Beals would turn away 60 shots in game two, while JNP goalie David Kelly would only see 10 shots against him, turning aside all of them.
“Woonsocket does not have many experienced skaters,” Morrison said. “We have a little bit deeper of a team so we were able to wear them down. In a two-game series, we just wanted to wear them down and keep the puck in their zone. When you move the puck well, it forces the other team to have to skate and catch up and Woonsocket had a hard time just keeping up with us.”
JNP, the No. 3 seed, defeated the sixth-seeded Villa Novans three times in the regular season by scores of 9-1, 3-2 and 7-1.
Playing in their Cougar uniforms, Brandon Tanguay got JNP on the board first at 5:21 of the first period in game two, with assists going to Jacob McCullough and Brian Iannuccillo.
“Sophomore Brandon Tanguay is really shifty,” JNP coach David Centracchio said. “He can really shoot and is going to be a good player for us in the years to come.”
Skating 4-on-4, JNP’s Nick Threshier scored the first of his two goals off of a rebound for a 2-0 lead. John Gibau made it 3-0 with 1:31 left in the first period, assisted by Justin Gomes. The Cougars would have over 20 shots on net in the first period.
Sam DaCosta tallied his first of two goals in the game just 45 seconds into the second period and would assist with Michael Petracca on Justin Harvey’s goal 12 seconds later, as JNP took a 5-0 advantage. Once again, the Cougars would put over 20 shots on net in the second period.
Threshier and DaCosta found the back of the net for their second goals of the game in the third period, in which JNP out-shot the Villa Novans 17-0. Centracchio spoke highly of his Johnston co-captain saying, “Sam DaCosta has become a real leader on the team. He got the game puck tonight and had a beautiful assist, as well as three goals in the series.”
Morrison is looking forward to playing Ponaganset again, a team that beat JNP 3-1 back in December and, more recently, in the regular season finale last week, 6-0.
“We are excited to play Ponaganset,” Morrison said. “We are not ones to lie down, we are always ready to fight the good fight, which we try to instill in our guys. We have not beaten West Warwick/EWG or Ponaganset, the two top teams this year, now is a good time to start.”
When asked what the key to beating Ponaganset was, Morrison replied, “We need to keep pressure in their zone like we did to Woonsocket if we are going to beat them.”
Centracchio added, “Ponaganset has a lot of good players, and they have two good goaltenders. We are going to have to shut them down from breaking out of the zone. Hopefully our two lines can play together as a team like we did tonight.”
Game one of the Division III semifinals will take place tomorrow night at Levy Rink at 6 p.m. Game two is slated for Saturday night at the Rhode Island Sports Center at 5:30 p.m. The other Division III semifinal pits Warwick Vets against top-seeded West Warwick/EWG.
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