Smithtown defeated last-place St. John the Baptist 4-2 in a penalty-riddled contest Monday night at The Rinx.
The Bulls (9-3-0) jumped out to a 3-0 lead by the end of the first period on goals by Nick Mangia, Brian Boser and Chris Grote.
Smithtown capitalized on a few power play chances early as the Cougars (0-11-1) were unable to stay away from the penalty box. St. John's took five penalties in the first period, and 19 over the course of the game.
Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Cougars answered back with a power play goal of their own less than six minutes into the second period, when Brandon Tirelli took a feed from Matt O'Shaugnessy and beat Smithtown goaltender Danny Nudelman. Nudelman stopped 14 of the 16 shots he faced.
Nearly five minutes later, James Schreiber replenished Smithtown's three-goal cushion with a power play goal of his own at 11:42.
Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
O'Shaugnessy capped the scoring early in the third period as he beat Nudelman after dancing around two Smithtown defenders to make it 4-2 with 12:20 to play, but the Cougars were unable to generate much more offense.
The Bulls will play defending league champion Middle Country Wednesday night without Granice behind the bench.
News & Notes: Middle Country has won eight of their last nine since losing to Smithtown 8-4 on October 4 ... With the win, Smithtown pulls into a three-way tie for third place with Connetquot/Sayville and Middle Country ... Middle Country upset the second-seeded Bulls last year in the Suffolk County finals ... It was the second time they lost in the finals in the previous three years (to St. Anthony's in 2008).
