Defending champions down Burrillville
Broncos play well for first 24 minutes, struggle late against La Salle
BURRILLVILLE — For the first 24 minutes, 3 seconds of Thursday night’s Division I showdown against reigning state champion La Salle, the Burrillville hockey team finally brought the energy and effort they’ve shown frequently against Mount, but not against the other two parochial powerhouses.
Following Blake Hopkins’ goal with 5:57 left in the second period to cut La Salle’s lead in half, it looked like the Broncos were in position to earn their first positive result against the Rams since moving up to Division I three seasons ago.
And then Jacob Handanyan scored 28 seconds later. And then the junior scored again at 11:20. He finished off his hat trick early in the third period to finish off a four- point night, while sophomore linemate James McCue-Louvet also produced four points in the Rams’ 5-1 victory at Levy Rink.
“For the first period and most of the second period it looked the way we wanted it to look,” Farrell said. “The energy was high, the effort was high and we were moving our feet. We skate fine with these teams, so it’s not a skating issue that gets us in trouble. The difference tonight was they buried their chances and we didn’t.”
Burrillville (6-5, 2-3-0-1 Division I) has now lost its last two contests heading into Sunday night’s game against winless Prout at Providence College’s Schneider Arena.
The reality for the Broncos is they have two very winnable road games coming up before undefeated Bishop Hendricken comes to Levy Rink in two weeks.
The challenge for Farrell and his coaching staff is to get the Broncos to replicate the effort from the first half of Thursday’s game against a Crusader team coming off a 3-2 defeat to Barrington.
“I hope the kids are a little ticked off about the result of the last couple of games,” said Farrell, who played high-school hockey for both the Broncos and Rams. “I hope they come out ready to go. As a coaching staff we’ll be reminding them of that they need to bring it every night. If we get off to the start we did [Thursday] and keep it sustained, we’ll be ok.”
La Salle (5-1 Division I) responded to last week’s one-goal defeat to Hendrick- en by defeating the top two public-school teams in the state by the same score. AllState goalie Justin Spencer (20 saves) was at his best in the opening period of the game when the Broncos outplayed the Rams, but failed to find the back of the net.
The Rams, who play Barrington tomorrow night, gave up two superb chances in the opening five minutes, but the young Broncos failed to capitalize. First, junior Dom Savastano just missed classmate Cam Menard’s stick on a two-on-one, and then minutes later Spencer stopped a point-blank effort from Hopkins with the Broncos on the power play.
Even though they were hemmed in their own zone for most of the period, the Rams led by a goal when Handanyan took advantage of a neutral-zone turnover to find McCue-Louvet for a goal at 9:59.
La Salle doubled its lead with a power-play goal 5:31 into the second period when John Devine’s shot from the left circle was saved by Dylan Nault, but the rebound fell to Mc- Cue-Louvet for an opportunistic goal.
Burrillville was finally rewarded for its hard work at 9:03 when Hopkins buried a chance created by Alex Carlow. Just when it seemed the Broncos had a chance to win the game, La Salle answered 28 seconds later when Handanyan scored the first of his three goals.
“You have to ride the momentum after you score and you should feel good about yourself,” Farrell said. “The challenge is after you score, the other team stiffens. For us, we score to make it 2-1 and they scored on the very next shift because we don’t cover a guy in the high slot and he finds the back of the net.
“It’s bigger with a team like La Salle that probably figures they should handle us, they stiffen after letting up a goal. The coach probably gets on them. When you score a goal, a team with any moxie lines up and raises their level.”
The Broncos simply weren’t the same team after Handanyan’s goal to make it 3-1. Handanyan chased Nault (10 saves) from the game with his second goal at 11:20 and the Ram finished the scoring 2:35 into the third period when he ripped a shot past reserve goalie Sam DeRotto (9 saves).
“It’s January and I feel like we’re getting better,” Farrell said. “It was nice to see the way it looked in the first period. At least we can take that positive out of it and feel good about the fact that we can play with these guys even if the scoreboard suggests otherwise.” La Salle 1 3 1–5
Burrillville 0 1 0–1
First period – LSA, James McCue-Louvet (Jacob Handanyan, Zenas Kennedy), 9:59.
Second period – LSA, McCue-Louvet (John Devine, Eric Markey), pp 5:31; B, Blake Hopkins (Alex Carlow), 9:03; LSA, Handanyan ( McCue-Louvet), 9:31; LSA, Handanyan (unassisted), 11:20.
Third period – LSA, Handanyan ( McCue-Louvet, Devine), 2:35. Saves – LSA, Justin Spencer (20 saves); B, Dylan Nault (10 saves); Sam DeRotto (9 saves).