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The Tinley Junction 021617
The Tinley Junction 021617
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54 | February 16, 2017 | The tinley junction sports<br />
tinleyjunction.com<br />
Celtics shut out Mustangs in semi-finals<br />
Brittany Kapa, Assistant Editor<br />
St. Rita’s fan section came<br />
in strong, loud and like a<br />
scene from “Braveheart,”<br />
complete with blue face<br />
paint.<br />
The team’s fans would<br />
leave quieter and much more<br />
reserved than they entered.<br />
On Feb. 9, the No. 1 seed<br />
Providence took on the No.<br />
4 seeded St. Rita in the semifinal<br />
round of the Kennedy<br />
Cup series. St. Rita hosted<br />
Providence at SouthWest Ice<br />
Arena in Crestwood for the<br />
second game of the series.<br />
Providence proved victorious<br />
by the end of the night<br />
with a 2-0 win, and swept<br />
the series with two back-toback<br />
shutouts.<br />
Tinley Park’s Ryan Iaciancio<br />
kept his undefeated<br />
streak alive in the Chicago<br />
Catholic Hockey League<br />
with a 25-save performance<br />
en route to the team’s Thursday<br />
night victory.<br />
“I knew it was an elimination<br />
game for them, so I<br />
knew that they were going<br />
to bring everything that they<br />
had,” Iaciancio said. “We<br />
prepared; we knew what<br />
they had coming in. Our<br />
defense played great and<br />
helped me get the shutout.”<br />
Iaciancio finished the<br />
game with a few memorable<br />
www.bjesLockport.com<br />
Ryan Iaciancio (middle), a Tinley Park resident, makes a kick save during the Feb. 9 game<br />
against St. Rita recording a shut out and series win. PHotos by Julie McMann/22nd Century<br />
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saves, one of which had him<br />
well out of the safety of the<br />
blue paint.<br />
Senior forward Josh<br />
Mooncotch scored the lone<br />
regular strength goal with 2<br />
minutes 10 seconds left in<br />
the second period. Mooncotch<br />
was fed a pass from<br />
Jake Vennetti that got St.<br />
Rita’s goalie moving, and<br />
allowed enough space for<br />
Mooncotch to bury the puck<br />
in the net off of a quick wrist<br />
shot. Jake Rott picked up the<br />
secondary assist on that play.<br />
Mooncotch cited Iaciancio’s<br />
performance as one of<br />
the main reasons his team<br />
was so successful during the<br />
night.<br />
“He stood on his head,”<br />
Mooncotch said. “He’s been<br />
playing great the last two<br />
games, he kept us in and had<br />
two shutouts.”<br />
Providence’s second goal<br />
came at the very end of the<br />
third period after St. Rita had<br />
pulled goalie Mike Iwaniec<br />
in an attempt to even up the<br />
score.<br />
Kevin Horan made sure<br />
that did not happen with a<br />
buzzer beater goal into St.<br />
Rita’s empty net with less<br />
than a second to go.<br />
A common theme throughout<br />
the night for Providence<br />
was the team’s aggressiveness<br />
on the puck, and the<br />
team’s willingness to make<br />
good plays. Defensively,<br />
Frankfort’s Jake Lawler was<br />
able to keep Providence’s offensive<br />
zone time up with a<br />
series of good keeps at the<br />
blue line.<br />
“We try and be as aggressive<br />
as we can, and if you get<br />
beat we’re at least going to<br />
make you make a great play<br />
to beat us,” head coach Nick<br />
Iaciancio said. “Sometimes<br />
,we have a tendency to go<br />
too hard, and lose our discipline<br />
in there.”<br />
The team’s aggressiveness<br />
did result in four penalties<br />
throughout the game.<br />
Despite being a man short<br />
the team was always able to<br />
have control of the game and<br />
the situation. Mooncotch<br />
was called on a crosscheck<br />
violation during the second<br />
period, and Providence was<br />
able to keep St. Rita from<br />
even getting a shot on net.<br />
“Our fourth line dominated<br />
play for a good portion of<br />
the time, which was a huge<br />
leg [up] for us to give everyone<br />
else a break, especially<br />
Josh Mooncotch (above), assisted by Jake Vennetti and<br />
Jake Rott, scores the lone even strength goal against St.<br />
Rita.<br />
Jake Rott (left) celebrates with his teammates after the<br />
team’s first goal in the second period.<br />
when you’re killing penalties,”<br />
Nick Iaciancio commented<br />
on the team’s multiple<br />
successful penalty kills.<br />
Iaciancio said he does not<br />
generally like to assign numbers<br />
to his lines, but cited<br />
that Mokena’s Cole Kaup,<br />
Shorewood’s Cam Cutler<br />
and Orland Park’s Shane<br />
Horan were all essential in<br />
the success of killing those<br />
penalties.<br />
The team celebrated their<br />
victory after the game, but<br />
knows that their next challenge<br />
looms ahead. Providence<br />
is preparing to take<br />
on Fenwick in the Kennedy<br />
Cup finals, and no one wants<br />
to lose focus before then.<br />
“We know we’re playing<br />
Fenwick in the finals, and we<br />
know they’re going to bring<br />
everything they have,” Ryan<br />
Iaciancio said. “They haven’t<br />
beaten us this year. Our last<br />
game was pretty close; we<br />
know that this final, anything<br />
can happen, so we have to<br />
bring our ‘A’ game.”
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