Twice as nice
Burrillville rides Nault in shutout; Mount claims shootout
The Burrillville hockey team needed just 1 goal to win while Mount lit the lamp often as both locals skated to victories Saturday.
BURRILLVILLE — The Burrillville and Mount St. Charles hockey teams played vastly different games Saturday night, but the result was the same – an important Division I home victory headed into Christmas.
The Broncos, who were coming off a shutout defeat to Bishop Hendricken Friday night, used goalie Dylan Nault’s first career shutout to beat rebuilding Moses Brown/East Providence/Tolman co-op 1-0 at Levy Rink thanks to a third-period goal from Freshman Brayden Deschamps.
“It’s very important that we get points ev- ery weekend,” Burrillville coach David Farrell said. “We played much better than we did the previous game, but we’re just having trouble finding the back of the net lately. This is one of those games where the kids just had to figure it out. Fortunately, we were able to figure it out, get one up on the board and get the win.”
Just down Route 102 at Adelard Arena, the Mounties snapped a two-game losing streak, but it didn’t come easy against reigning Division II champion Barrington. The Mounties took the lead three times in the first two periods, but the Eagles answered each time to set- up a 15-minute game.
That’s when sophomore forward CeeJay Laquerre and the Mounties started playing the hockey that led them to victories early in the season against the Broncos, St. John’s and Smithfield. Laquerre delivered four of his team-high five points in the third period, as the Mounties skated into Christmas with an 8-3 victory.
“We started out really strong and then we got really sloppy,” Mount St. Charles coach Dave Belisle said. “Give them credit, they disrupted us and got out of our flow. It was a back-and-forth type of game where we gave up too many shots. We needed to play close to the vest and I feel like the kids did that in the third period.
“We preach how much pride we take in our own end. You have to make plays with the puck and we were just giving the puck away – sometimes without any pressure.”
Burrillville (3-3, 2-1-0-1 Division I) sits a point ahead of Smithfield for fourth place in Division I going into 2019.
The Broncos will step out of league play this week when they host the Burrillville Winter Classic where they will play Cranston West and North Smithfield.
Saturday, the star of the game was Nault, who was has been impressive in his first season in net. The junior made a couple of key saves in the second period on two-onones to atone for what he felt wasn’t his best performance in Friday’s 4-0 defeat to the Hawks where all the goals he gave up were in the second period.
“For me, everything is about routine and there’s a pregame routine that is helping me out there,” Nault said after recording 19 saves. “It was good to bounce back because I thought I played bad [against Hendrick- en], but after tonight’s win, that gets the bad taste out of our mouth. Because it was 0-0, I was ready this whole game.”
The Broncos had numerous opportunities to open the scoring in the second period but former Mount St. Charles Middle School goalie Jason Mandeville (29 saves) made crucial saves on freshman Michael Allen, Alex Carlow and Blake Hopkins at the end of the second period to keep the game scoreless.
Finally, 4:24 into the third period, the Broncos solved Mandeville. After sophomore Ryan Deschamps had his shot saved by the freshman, Brayden Deschamps followed up and scored the game-winning goal.
“Any win is a good win in this division. You need them all,” Farrell said. “Nault has been good for us this year, which has been great. We did a good job staying out of the box, that is huge, and I think any coach will tell you that.”
Mount St. Charles (4-2, 3-2 Division I) came into Saturday’s game riding a twogame losing streak, but the Mounties jumped out to a lead just 28 seconds into the opening period on a Bailey Thibeault goal. But, as was the case throughout the first two periods, the Eagles responded. Barrington answered an Alex Pratt goal late in the first period and a Trey Bourque goal late in the second to send the game into the third tied at 3.
“We chewed them out in between periods for the right reasons and they knew that we needed to get the puck over the red line, dump it in and play simple hockey,” Belisle said. “We needed to get our forecheck going. You can’t turn the light switch on. It has to be on all the time, you can’t flick it on and off.”
The light switch remained on for the entire third period because the Mounties scored twice in the opening minute and never looked back. Bourque took a pass from Laquerre for the game-winning goal just 46 seconds into the third period and senior Michael Canavan doubled the lead just 12 seconds later.
Laquerre fed Thibeault for a goal at 8:13 and then the sophomore was finally rewarded with a goal of his own at 9:37. Laquerre helped finish the scoring when he found Ethan Letendre for a short-handed goal with 3:47 left in the contest.
“I put that line back together again today – [John] Belisle, Laquerre and Bourque – and they play well together,” Belisle said. “CeeJay is such a grinder, he deserves everything that he gets.”