The defending Division III hockey champion, Johnston/North Providence Co-op, was knocked out of the playoffs in the semifinals by a spirited West Warwick/Exeter-West Greenwich squad on Saturday night. The Wizards defeated JNP, 3-1, in Game 2, completing a two-game sweep in the best-of-three series.
Last year, JNP defeated WW/EWG in two games during the Division III finals at Brown University, but it was evident that it was not going to let JNP ruin its hopes of a division title again this year.
Game 2 was originally slated to be played at the Rhode Island Sports Center, JNP’s home rink, but it was shifted over to Mount Saint Charles’ Adelard Arena because there was a plumbing problem at the 146 ice rink.
JNP earned a No. 3 seed, posting a 9-7-2 league record this season, while WW/EWG came in as a No. 2 seed with a 15-3 division record.
JNP dropped Game 1 of the series at West Warwick on Friday night, 5-2, in a game that was closer than the score indicated.
The two teams played a scoreless first period as JNP could not capitalize on a WW/EWG five-minute major penalty. The Wizards/Knights’ Alex Ventura gave his team a 1-0 lead just one minute, 11 seconds into the second period. WW/EWG extended its lead to 2-0 on a Dan Skorski goal with just over four minutes to play in the second period.
Playing as the Panthers, JNP answered right back one minute later on Brandon Tanguay’s goal, assisted by Nathan Nye.
JNP opened the third period on a power play, but could not find the back of the net with the man advantage. Goaltender Dave Kelly, who had 29 saves in the game, was pulled for the extra man with just under one minute to go in the game, but JNP could not tie the score.
Zach Magiera’s open-net goal sealed the game with 43 seconds left, earning the Wizards a berth in the Division III finals against No. 1 seed Ponaganset on Friday night at Brown University’s Meehan Auditorium.
“We played catch-up hockey the entire series and catch-up hockey is losing hockey,” said JNP head coach Dave Centracchio. “We never had a lead. We had the better scoring opportunities in Game 1 last night, but we did not put the puck in the net. WW/EWG is a tough team, they hit hard and are very physical. I’m happy with the way we played this year, our guys played above and beyond. We played WW/EWG tight all year, we just could not get over the hump. We were very competitive with them all year.”
JNP lost to the Wizards three times in the regular season by scores of 2-0, 4-2 and 2-1, the last of which coming in overtime.
Centracchio went on to say, “We had a neutral zone trap that we worked on for weeks, but we did not get a chance to use it. We are not a goal-scoring team, we are more of a defensive team.”
Senior captains Shawn O’Brien, Jacob McCollough and Mike Petracca reflected back on their four years playing for JNP. They said that they had two hard seasons a few years ago when they were 0-18 and 1-18, and when they won the championship last year, they really appreciated it. They agreed that they did not capitalize on WW/EWG mistakes, which proved to be critical.
“Overall, I am proud of my team,” O’Brien said. “We overcame a lot this year and came together as a team. We gave it our best shot tonight, but it did not go our way.”
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