The Johnston/North Providence co-op hockey team has captured the state title for 2 towns by beating opponents West Warwick/EWG co-op this past weekend at Brown University’s Meehan Auditorium and again are the champions of Division II.
The JNP hockey team finished the regular season with a 12-6 record in Division III and gaining the 3rd seed in the Division II State Tournament. They beat 6th seed Woonosocket 1st round very easily by winning the 2 play off games , 3-0 and 7-0 respectively. In the 2nd round they were up against 2nd seed Ponaganset which was not going to be as easy. The last time the 2 faced off, Ponaganset clobbered JNP 6-0. The Chieftains won the first game 2-1, but JNP took the 2nd game 5-4 in a thrilling double overtime nail-biter. In the decisive winner take all 3rd game JNP came up on top 2-1 to make it to the finals and face off against 1st seed WW/EWG. During the regular season series, WW/EWG swept JNP 3 games to 0 and expected to win the title pretty easily, but that was not the case.
In the first game, JNP came out guns blazing as Johnston’s Jacob McCullough scored twice in the first 4 minutes putting JNP up 2-0 early and shocking the favorites of WW/EWG. Both goals were setup by North Providence’s Brandon Tanguay. Tanguay then scored in the 3rd period to make it 3-0 with an assist by Captain Sam DeCosta. WW/EWG did get one back though with a poer play goal in the 3rd but it did not matter as JNP won 3-1 and surprising fans with the first win. Freshman goalie Dave Kelly was superb all game for JNP only allowing one goal from the highest scoring team in Division III.
In game 2, JNP had a chance to close it out and call themselves champions. They were down the whole game 1-0 and in the last minutes of the game, went on a rally. On a power play, Captain Sam DeCosta scored with an asisst from Captain Nick Threshier and tied it 1-1. And only seconds later, Tanguay took advantage of a loose puck and scored to give JNP the lead 2-1 with less than a minute to go and eventually, the state title.
The JNP hockey team is atop of Divsion III hockey and plan to stay there as they’re only losing 4 players. The series MVP went to freshman goalie Dave Kelly who stopped the high scoring WW/EWG team. The team came out of nowhere and surprised everybody to win a state title that truly is deserved.
By: Nathan Moreira.