BITTER END FOR NOVANS
No. 3 Mt. Hope ices Woonsocket/Scituate
WOONSOCKET – The Woonsocket/Scituate Co-op hockey team had four powerplays – including a major and a two-minute five-on-three – but the only time the Villa Novans could breach Mt. Hope goalie Kyle Depoy’s net was when they were shorthanded.
It was just that kind of night for the No. 2 Villa Novans.
Playing for their first appearance in a division final of any kind in over two decades, the Villa Novans couldn't build on Saturday's Game 2 victory over the No. 3 Huskies.
Jack Dolan produced assists in each of the first two periods to lead Mt. Hope to a 2-1 Division III semifinal Game 3 victory Tuesday night at Adelard Arena and a trip to this weekend's title series opposite No. 1 Pilgrim.
“The bounces just didn’t go our way tonight,” Woonsocket/Scituate coach David Rivard said. “All night, we just didn’t pass the puck well and we didn’t leave our zone clean. It was the exact opposite of the other night. I think some of it was them applying a little more pressure and they were much more aggressive, but we sat back instead of being the aggressors.”
It appeared the Villa Novans would go quietly when Evan Pendergast was called for a penalty with 2:20 left in the game, but the Villa Novans produced their lone goal down a man. Scituate’s Cam Barry found fellow Spartan Matt Besser for a goal at Depoy’s left post to cut the deficit in half with just 63 seconds left.
Senior goalie Devon Rivard was pulled with 30 seconds left when the Novans found their way into Mt. Hope’s zone, but Depoy and the Huskies cleared the puck to advance the Easy Bay club to its first final since the 2012 Division III final.
For the Villa Novans, reaching the playoffs was a victory in itself after they missed the playoffs by a single point last season.
“We had a good a season and this was still a successful season,” David Rivard said. “The kids played hard and the team has gotten better every year. This year was the semifinals after missing the playoffs the last couple of year. Who knows what is going to happen? We’ll see what happens.”
Mt. Hope, which won both of the games played at Adelard, needed to rebound after dropping a 4-1 decision at Portsmouth Abbey Saturday afternoon. Minutes after the Villa Novans killed off the first of four Husky power-play opportunities, the talented Dolan skated into the zone and fired a shot from between the circles.
Rivard let the puck go over his head, but the puck bounced off the glass and then off of the senior before it fell to the stick of Ryan Cordeiro. All the junior had to do was tuck it into the net to open the scoring.
“Oh my God, are you kidding me?,” David Rivard said. “It went off the glass, off the goalie and then right to their player and in. I knew at that point we had to change something or we were in trouble.”
The Novans were given an opportunity to respond minutes later when Mt. Hope sophomore forward Cam Rancourt was given a fiveminute major for boarding and 1:22 later captain Austin Hogan was sent to the box for a cross check right in front of Depoy.
The Villa Novans, however, never found a way to score with the two-minute two-man advantage. The only time the puck went into the net came when junior Aiden Pendergast fired a shot from the blue line that went in after the first-period buzzer went off.
“We picked up our foredeck and our aggression in the third period, but it was a little too late,” David Rivard said. “The problem is we wanted traffic in front of their net and we didn’t get it. They boxed us out and we didn’t get there. The other night, we had people in front of their goalie and we cashed in.”
Woonsocket, thanks to the carry over of the major penalty, dominated the first five minutes of the second period. The Novans actually outshut the Huskeis 22-15 through two periods, but they went into intermission down 2-0 thanks to a wonderful piece of skill from Dolan.
The junior skated the puck into the zone and delivered a perfect pass from the right circle to the slot where sophomore James Marshall was on hand to rip a one-timer past Rivard.
“I just told them in between periods to play more aggressive and I wanted them to go out and play hard,” David Rivard said. “I didn’t want them standing on their heels. That was basically it.”
The Novans tried to force the second overtime game of the series, but Depoy saved the first six shots he saw from the Novans in the third period until Pendergast went to the penalty box. Woonsocket/Scituate found a lifeline when Besser, the team’s talented senior leading scorer, snuck a shot past Depoy.
“We told the kids to be more aggresive and to pinch at the points because we didn’t want them to mess with the puck in their own end,” David Rivard said.
Devon Rivard made a couple of superb saves in the final minute to stop Dolan from scoring a goal of his own, but the saves went for naught because the Villa Novans couldn’t find the game-tying goal.
“Devon kept us in the game and there’s nothing more you can say about that,” David Rivard said. “I’m proud of him.”