HO_030520

46 | March 5, 2020 | the homer horizon sports
homerhorizondaily.com
Benet rallies late to stun Providence, win Kennedy Cup
3
Steve Millar, Sports Editor
Providence was 25 seconds
away from a massive
celebration on the ice.
Benet had other ideas.
The Redwings tied the
game with 25 seconds to
go, then won it in overtime,
topping Providence 4-3 in
the third and decisive game
of the Kennedy Cup finals
Feb. 26 at Arctic Ice Arena
in Orland Park.
“Twenty-five more seconds,
and we would have
had that cup,” Providence
junior Dan O’Shea said.
“We’re just speechless. We
don’t know how to react.
We just have to take this
and come back even stronger.”
Benet, which was seeded
second in the Kennedy Cup
playoffs, brought home the
coveted Catholic League
trophy for the third time
in its history and denied
top-seeded Providence its
fourth. The Celtics’ three
championships have all
come since 2014, their last
in 2017.
The Celtics (42-13-1, 23-
4) rallied from a 2-0 deficit
with three-straight goals to
take the lead. All-State forward
and Homer Glen resident
Tommy Davis scored
two of them to increase his
season total to 59, while
O’Shea had what looked to
be the game-winner until
Benet surged at the end.
With its goalie pulled
and the extra attacker on,
Benet found new life when
Christiano Dibenedetto
scored with 25 seconds left
to tie it.
Moments earlier, a Providence
shot toward the open
net that would have sealed
the win narrowly missed.
Just under two minutes
into overtime, Benet’s Anthony
Klos sent a soft backhander
from near the blue
line on net. The puck took a
strange hop off the ice and
knuckled past Providence
goalie Luke Brzezinski to
end the game.
Benet flooded the ice in
jubilation, while several
Providence players collapsed
on the ice in disbelief.
“It was just a bad bounce
in OT that ended it,”
O’Shea said. “We thought
we had it in the bag.”
Providence won Game 1
of the best-of-three series
4-2 on Feb. 21 but was shut
out 3-0 on Feb. 23.
Game 3 seemed to be going
similarly, as Benet’s defense
again shut down the
Celtics through nearly two
full periods. Benet led 2-0
behind a first-period goal
from Thomas McDonald
and a goal midway through
the second period from
Kyle Welch.
“It took us a while,”
Providence coach Nick Iaciancio
said. “I think we
were being too predictable.
They were kind of reading
our plays.”
When the Celtics needed
a lift, it was Davis who, as
he often does, provided it.
He scored with 52 seconds
left in the second
period, assisted by Peyton
Botich and Tom Zschach.
Davis struck again less
than two minutes into the
third, tying the game 2-2
with a power-play goal, assisted
by Zschach and Joe
McConnell.
“We started moving our
feet,” Davis said. “We realized
we were in a hole and
knew we had to get out of
it. We were putting passes
together, getting pucks in
deep and putting pressure
on.”
Less than four minutes
after Davis tied it, O’Shea
Tommy Davis, of Homer Glen, scored his 58th and 59th goals of the season in Game 3 of the Kennedy Cup finals
against Benet on Feb. 26 at Arctic Ice Arena in Orland Park. Photos by Mike Prepelica/22nd Century Media
gave the Celtics the lead,
finding the net with 11:58
to go to set off a celebration
among the Providence fans
in the jam-packed arena.
The Celtics continued to
control play in the third period
but never increased the
lead and left the door open
for a Benet rally.
“We made some adjustments
in the third period,
and I think we dominated,”
Iaciancio said. “We scored
two goals, and we had three
other breakaways. Then,
we missed the open net by
six inches. Unfortunately,
that’s just how it goes.
“I was really proud of
the guys to come back from
being down, get the lead
and then get more opportunities.
We didn’t sit back
when we got the lead, we
kept pushing, but sometimes,
it just doesn’t work
out.”
Providence celebrates a goal, with its students cheering them on behind the glass,
during the decisive game against Benet.
The Celtics prepared
to turn their focus to the
AHAI state playoffs. They
beat Carmel in a Round of
16 game by a score of 4-3
on Saturday, Feb. 29, and
were to play Barrington
next on Wednesday,
March 4.
“You just have to learn
from this,” Davis said. “We
still have state, so we’re
not done yet. We just have
to play our hearts out and
like our coach said, write a
new history where we lose
[the Kennedy Cup] but win
state.”