St. Joseph making a playoff push

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

By Jim McConville
NJS.com Staff Writer

MONSEY, NY - Face with the possibility of missing out on the post-season Cup playoffs for the Northern Conference Red Division, the St. Joseph Regional ice hockey team picked up its second win in two days on Monday at Sport-O-Rama with a 5-0 defeat of River Dell.

The victory moved the Green Knights to 4-11-2 overall but, more importantly, 3-5-2 in the division, which leap-frogged them over Lakeland and Paramus Catholic (the team they beat 2-1 on Sunday) into fifth place.

With Paramus, Lakeland, Pope John and Tenafly still to be faced in division play, the road to the playoffs (the top six in the division make the post-season) is far from secure, but certainly more promising than it was entering the weekend.

River Dell dropped to 0-11 in the division and 1-14-1 overall, as the Golden Hawks suffered their 11th shutout loss of the season. They've scored just 11 goals all year, and will drop down to the White Division for the 2003-04 season as a result of their last-place division finish this year.

The Knights got a goal from Matt Lamonica 5:19 into the game that would be all they would need, as Vincent Januska stopped 14 Hawk shots and Steven David two in combining for the first shutout of the year for St. Joe's.

Conor Smith got the first of his two goals 1:39 into the second period, and Ben DePiero scored with 51 seconds to go in the middle stanza to make it 3-0. Smith and Steve Januska scored a minute apart in the third period to close out the scoring.

Scott Meredith had 21 saves for the Hawks, who were 0 for 5 on the power play.

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Jim McConville