THE BOYS IN BLUE
Members of the Cumberland High School boys’ ice hockey team celebrate a goal during Sunday afternoon’s 2-1 victory over North Smithfield. The win clinched the best-of-three series and sends the No. 1 Clippers to a semifinal matchup with Cranston West. Cumberland had won Game 1 of the series against North Smithfield, 7-1 on Friday night. For more, see Sports,
NORTH SMITHFIELD – With North Smithfield fighting to save its playoff life on Sunday afternoon, head coach Ben Shatraw paced up and down his bench slowly inhaling and exhaling as his squad warmed up prior to the start of the third period opposite top-ranked Cumberland.
The Clippers had jumped out to a two-goal cushion in this second game of a best-of-three Division II quarterfinal set at the jam-packed R.I. Sports Center, and Shatraw
appeared a bit pensive but also confident, given the Northmen’s overall gritty play in the first two periods.
Shatraw’s crew did indeed win that final stanza with a late tally, but it wasn’t enough to dethrone the Clippers, who held on tight to the 2-1 triumph.
With the victory, not to mention the 7-1 blowout of NS on Friday night, Cumberland qualified to face fourthranked Cranston West in a best-ofthree semifinal series; the opener is currently slated for Friday night at Adelard Arena.
The Northmen’s campaign closed at 8-11-0.
“That was a total team effort; exactly what I wanted with the season on the line,” Shatraw stated afterward. “We talked about simplifying some things before the game. I think they felt overwhelmed by the playoff environment (during Friday’s loss), that it would be more different than it was, but I told them, ‘It’s still just a hockey game.’
“I wanted our guys to win the first shift, and – when we won the first shift – we were going to think about trying to win the second. I wanted them to go by shifts. I didn’t want them thinking about the big picture.
“Before game time, we talked about doing the little things well, how defensively we needed to be stronger, to play defense before offense, and they did. That was all them. That was a totally different effort from what I saw from us Friday night.”
Another key to the Northmen’s relative success: Junior keeper Forrest Zuba, who was phenomenal between the pipes with 30 saves.
“Zuba’s a very good goalie, but we didn’t challenge him enough here,” stated Cumberland coach Mark Andreozzi. “We challenged him on Friday night; we picked up rebounds, we made him uncomfortable back there, made him work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy we’re moving on to the second round, but we certainly have to clean up some things.
“We need to be more poised in front of the net, not take slap shots with a defenseman right in front of it; we didn’t do that on Friday night, either. It’s not all that bad, but we didn’t do the little things quite as well here. Let’s put it this way: We outshot them, 10-1, in the first in this one, but it was 20-3 on Friday.
Just 1:16 into the contest, officials whistled sophomore Kole Sisson for a trip, giving the Northmen their first power-play opportunity, though nothing came of it. In fact, less than two minutes after Cumberland killed that penalty, at the 5:08 mark, senior defenseman John Mello smoked a slap shot from the left point at Zuba, who seemed poised to make the stop.
Classmate Domenic Rousseau, however, somehow got a stick on it to deflect it into the netting and give the visitors the 1-0 lead. That’s how the initial session ended.
The middle period didn’t start out well for NS at all, as the officials called them for a “too many men” infraction just 52 seconds into it. With just 26 ticks left on the penalty, senior Sam Juntunen ripped a try from the top the right circle past Zuba for the 2-0 cushion.
Of course, he couldn’t have done that without the feeds of senior captains Sean Meers and Jackson Shevlin.
It looked like the Northmen finally would slice its deficit to one when, with 5:17 left, junior Ryan Andreoni hustled down the right boards and crushed a slapper at CHS sophomore goalie Jack Byrne, though he responded with a terrific midsection save.
Those witnessing the final period saw a flurry of penalties on both sides, yet NS was the only one to convert. With 2:15 remaining in regulation and a Clipper in the box, junior forward Mitchell Prudhomme knocked in assists from classmate Jackson Lynch and sophomore Ashley Driscoll to cut it to one, but that’s how it culminated.
“I told the guys after the game that we played exactly how I had envisioned it,” Shatraw said. “I was nervous beforehand about seeing what I saw Friday night. The thing is, we’re building for the future. That’s been the goal from the beginning. You look at most of our team, most of our starters, and they’re all underclassmen.
“This playoff experience is going to make a difference for us – leaps and bounds. Games like this make coaching rewarding. It makes me realize what we’re building toward.”