The Johnston/North Providence/Tiverton boys hockey team fell in the Division III Semifinals to West Warwick/ Exeter-West Greenwich on Tuesday evening, putting an end to its bounce back season.
It was the first time in three years that the Cats made the postseason, and came within arms reach of advancing to the D3 finals against defending champ Pilgrim. WW/EWG topped the Cats 2-1 in the decisive Game 3 on Tuesday after the two clubs split Games 1 and 2.
Ryan DiLorenzo would put the Panthers on the board with an early power-play goal, making it 1-0. WW/EWG would respond however, getting a goal late in the first period and the eventual game-winner in the second frame. Panther goalie Ethan Arruda had a strong performance between the pipes, finishing the game with 29 saves.
The two clubs battled in Game 1, and EWG would walk away with the 4-3 win. Johnston/NP/Tiverton would then take Game 2 by a score of 4-2 to set up Tuesday’s winner take all matchup.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first period of Game 2, the Cats would surge for four unanswered goals to wrap up the win and knot the series. Jeremy Gervais, Darren Medeiros, Zach Bernier and DiLorenzo all scored in the victory. Arruda finished the contest with 25 saves in net.
Seth Jacyssin scored in the first period of Game 1, and Bernier would put away a pair of goals in the third period to give the Cats a brief 3-2 lead. However, WW/EWG would come back in the final minutes and regain the lead.
“It was a hard-fought series and we just fell short. We couldn’t have asked anything more from them. They played their hearts out,” said Cats coach Manny DaCosta of the series.
Although the Cats will be losing some key contributors to graduation, DaCosta and company look forward to building on this season’s success, and hopefully taking the next step forward in 2019-20.
“We are losing two seniors this year. One a first-year player in PJ Rioles and the other is Zach Morin. We are looking forward to next year but (they) will be hard to replace,” said DaCosta. “The rest of the team looks forward to the challenge of getting back into the playoffs and seeing if we can take it to the next level.”
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