Ponaganset Chieftains a win away from first title in 16 years

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Ponaganset hockey fans have waited 16 years to celebrate a playoff championship.

Now they may need to wait only one more day.

The Chieftains moved one victory away from their first playoff title since 2000 when they posted a 2-0 victory over the West Warwick-Exeter/West Greenwich co-op in the first game of their best-of-three Division III title series on Friday night at Brown’s Meehan Auditorium.

The Chieftains, who won the 2000 Division II title, can clinched this year’s D-III crown with a victory in the second game of the series on Saturday night at 8 p.m. at Meehan. If WW/EWG evens the series, the deciding game will be played at 8 p.m. on Monday night at Meehan.

Ponaganset showed how it won the regular-season title with a 17-1 record as the Chieftains took an early lead, then relied on a defense that allowed only 18 goals in those games.

It took Ponaganset only a little over six minutes after the opening faceoff to take the lead as the Chieftains' Josh Dalessio chased a loose puck into the left corner and made a beautiful centering pass to senior Nate Morin. Morin then calmly flipped the puck into the upper-left corner from about 10 feet in front of Wizards netminder Jared Olson.

A nice glove save by Ponaganset goalie Curtis Briggs of a shot headed for the upper-right corner in the final few minutes of the opening session kept the Chieftains in front.

Dalessio went to work from the corner again early in the second period. This time he made a perfect feed to Ryan Watts skating into the slot from the right point and Watts blasted home the Chieftains second goal at 1:05.

Two bang-bang saves by Briggs from in close with just four minutes to play in the middle period enabled Ponaganset to carry the 2-0 lead into the third period.

The Chieftains protected their lead by allowing the Wizards only three shots on goal in the final period. West Warwick pulled its goalie with just under two minutes to play in the game and, after a Ponaganset penalty, had a 6-skaters-on-4 advantage for the final 90 seconds but still didn’t get a shot on Briggs.

The Ponaganset defense held WW/EWG to only 12 shots on cage in the 45-minute game, while the Chieftains fired 23 at the Wizards' goal.

The 2-0 triumph was Ponaganset’s ninth shutout in 21 Interscholastic League games this season, including two playoff shutouts. Source: PRO-JO By John Gillooly