Mounties battle Smithfield
Mount St. Charles continues winning streak
WOONSOCKET — The Mount St. Charles hockey team needed something to spark them into life in the second period of Friday night’s Division I contest with young Smithfield at Adelard Arena.
After an even opening period, the Sentinels had two great scoring chances, first sophomore goalie Jason Mandeville robbed sophomore Ben Mercurio on a breakaway and then moments later – with Mount on the power play – a Mount defenseman cleared the puck off the line just when it looked like Smithfield was going to take the lead.
Those defensive plays sparked Mount’s dormant offense into life. In the span of 5 minutes, 18 seconds late in the second period the Mounties netted four goals to blow open a close game. While Mandeville made 19 saves in his first start as a Mountie, CeeJay Laquerre scored two goals and delivered an assist in a 6-0 victory.
“We play very complimentary that way. Mandeville makes a big save and it was a pretty even period where both teams played with a lot of effort,” Mount coach Matt Merten said. “Our goal is to wear teams down because we like to go deep with all four lines. All the lines were working tonight, especially the red line since we tweaked a couple of things. There are so many positives to take away from this one.”
Mount St. Charles (6-2 Division I) will find out just how its full roster stacks up against undefeated La Salle Academy because the two teams will meet Friday night at Smithfield Municipal. Mount returns home Saturday night to take on Barrington, which dropped a 2-1 decision in overtime to Burrillville Friday night.
The only negative in Merten’s eyes was the discipline in the third period. Mount committed a pair of five-minute majors and they also were handed a retaliation penalty after Smithfield was headed to the box for interference. While the penalties didn’t hurt them Friday, it most certainly will against Austin Tasca and La Salle.
“The third period was a little frustrating and we know better,” Merten said. “If we want to be at a championship level, you can’t take major penalties. They let the energy of the crowd get the best of them. When they get a penalty, you fill the net with pucks, that’s been the Mount way [Coach Bill Belisle] taught us. We need to show more discipline.”
Smithfield (1-5-1 Division I) has now dropped six games in a row, including four league games. The Sentinels, who opened the season with a 4-1 win over the Mounties, rarely tested Mandeville after the flurry early in the second period. Smithfield struggled on all three of its power plays, including the two major penalties in the final period.
The Mounties scored the only goal they would need 6:16 into the middle period when Nolan Boucher found Brendan Donahue in the left circle. The junior ripped a shot over Nick Costa’s blocker, which was a theme throughout the evening. Merten said the plan wasn’t to concentrate on the blocker because Mount played so poorly in the first meeting they never tested Costa.
“We didn’t have a plan because we didn’t have many shots in the first game,” Merten said. “We started to skate, we got some traffic and after a while they realized they can go high blocker on him. This happened when [Sean Trottier] played, we make a big save and we start to roll. That happened with Mandeville.”
Laquerre doubled the lead at 7:08 thanks to one of three Matt Mahoney assists. Mahoney fed Boucher for the third goal and leading scorer Trey Bourque finished the second-period barrage with a power-play tally at 11:34.
Senior John Belisle took advantage of a turnover in the slot to make it 5-0 at 2:05 of the third period and then Laquerre finished the scoring when he tapped in a rebound off a shot by Mahoney.
Mello to to
on
CLIPPERS REMAIN UNBEATEN
WARWICK — The undefeated Cumberland hockey team exploded for five goals, including four power-play tallies, to defeat Toll Gate, 7-1, in a Division II contest Friday night at Thayer Ice Arena.
Cumberland (7-0 Division II) received first-period goals from freshman Troy Senn and then freshman Jaime Robbins rebuilt the one-goal advantage when he found Aidan Clarey for the first of the senior’s two goals.
After a scoreless second period, Jake McMillen and Christian Oliveira scored power- play goals, before Robbins netted an evenstrength effort to make the score 5- 1. Nick Badeau and Clarey finished the second with power- play goals.
Cumberland heads
Arena Saturday night Kingstown.
Brad Boss face North
p
p