Broncos flying into showdown with Hawks

Burrillville has won three straight contests

BURRILLVILLE — The Burrillville hockey team has won three straight contests and it would be easy to credit those victories to an offense that produced 13 goals in victories over Prout, Barrington and Connecticut’s Woodstock Academy.

But, what should make coach David Farrell feel good about his young squad headed into the second half of the season is that a young defense and junior goalie Dylan Nault allowed just three goals in the last three games.

Burrillville extended its winning streak to three Saturday night at Levy Rink when Ryan Deschamps scored a pair of goals and Nault produced his first shutout since December in a 3-0 victory over the Centaurs.

“We rolled out four lines and used three sets of defensive pairs, so it was good to get the win,” Farrell said Sunday. “They were a feisty team, a scrappy team, so it ended up being a worthwhile night for us. I don’t know if we’ve figured anything out on defense, but I hope as the season goes on we’re improving and getting better at defending the slot area. Our defensive play as a positive because we’re not the most prolific scoring team.”

Burrillville (9-5, 4-3-0-1 Division I) went on the road for the second time in four days Wednesday night and hammered defending Division II champion Barrington for the second time this season to start the second half of the campaign.

The one-win Eagles grabbed the lead in the opening period at Portsmouth Abbey, but the Broncos responded with goals from six different players to secure a 6-1 victory. Alex Carlow tied the game in the first period and sophomore Brayden Deschamps scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal in the opening period.

Colin McCarthy, Ryan Deschamps, Blake Hopkins and Ryan Boutiette also added goals.

“I think we have guys on our top two lines who can finish chances,” Farrell said. “For us, they need to. Against the better teams, we’re going to get that opportunity early in the game and we need someone to bury one. If we can have those games where we can get up on somebody and get a little boost from that, it’d be great.”

Woodstock Academy carried a 7-3 record into Levy Saturday night and the Connecticut school held the Broncos off the scoreboard in the first period. Ryan Deschamps delivered the game-winning goal in the second and sophomore added another goal in the third. Freshman defenseman Michael Allen scored for the second time in three games.

The Broncos will take a big step up in competition when undefeated – in league play – Bishop Hendricken comes to Levy Rink Thursday night at 6 p.m. The Hawks, who won the Mount Holiday FaceOff tournament last month, are two points ahead of reigning state champion La Salle for first place in the division.

Hendricken’s lone loss came to Massachusetts powerhouse Pope Francis earlier this month.

When the teams met last month at Thayer Ice Arena, the Hawks woke up after a scoreless first period and put three shots past Nault in the second period of a 4-0 win. The Hawks are paced by the top goal scorer in the Division I, senior Matt Dumond, freshman Brady Berard and goalie Patrick Gribbin.

“We’ll have three practices to get ready for them, so I like the way the week is set up for us,” Farrell said. “It’s an awesome challenge and a nolose situation because no one expects to win. It’s another great challenge coming off the La Salle game. Knowing the way we played them in the first period, we’ll have another opportunity to see where we’re at.”

A win Thursday will vault the Broncos a point above Mount St. Charles because Mount’s game Saturday against Smithfield was postponed because of the weekend storm. The Mounties currently sit on 10 points, while the Broncos have nine. Smithfield has eight points in six games headed into today’s contest against the winless Crusaders.

The goal for all three teams is to earn the No. 3 seed and avoid a difficult quarterfinal contest.

“We should be better than we were a month ago,” Farrell said. “We’ll find out on Thursday how much better we are, but we know Hendricken is getting better, too.”