Undefeated Mount prepared for La Salle
WOONSOCKET — Nearly a year later, Mount St. Charles and La Salle will play a highstakes best-of-three playoff series.
The Mounties and Rams were just 36 hours away from playing Game 1 of their state title series last March when the RIIL canceled the series at the onset of the pandemic and awarded each team a share of the state title.
There won’t be a share of the spoils this season because the undefeated top-seeded Mounties and the talented fourth-seeded Rams are set to open their Division I semifinal series Friday night at Adelard Arena at 6:30 p.m.
“Just to get back and play a two-out-of-three series is great,” Mount coach Matt Merten said days after his squad trounced Cumberland, 8-1, in the quarterfinals. “It’s nice to get the boys back in the feel of things and they had a great practice [Thursday] and the energy is way up. They’re excited and I’m sure the other three teams feel the same way headed into the weekend.”
In a bit of a role reversal, the Mounties enter Friday night as a favorite a year after La Salle, which was one of the best teams in New England during 2019-20, was the heavy favorite to win the state title.
The Mounties produced their first undefeated regular season since 2010 and secured the No. 1 seed with a 2-0 victory over the Rams Saturday night in Smithfield.
Goals from defenseman Eddie Mulligan and Cee-Jay Laquerre proved to be the difference, while Mount junior goalie Jason Mandeville continued to show why he’s the best player in the state with his second shutout of the season.
“We did some good things, but we need to stay out of the box and that’s been our one negative trend late in the season is penalties getting us out of our rhythm,” Merten said. “In the third period against La Salle, we did a good job with our rotation and pinning them deep and making them skate the entire ice to attack us. We cycled well, but they’re going to make adjustments, too. There’s no doubt about it, it’s going to be a good series.”
Mount St. Charles (9-0-1) scored the most goals (38) in the division during the regular season and a lot of that production came from the top line of Laquerre, Matt Mahoney and Micaiah Bascombe. Laquerre led Division I with 10 goals during the regular season, while he tied Mahoney for the D-I points lead with 13.
It was Bascombe, however, who was the driving force in the win over Cumberland. The junior winger netted a hat trick and produced an assist in the win.
“We’re trying to progress and get better every game, so our goal is to try and repeat the first period against Cumberland? Yes,” Merten said. “Maybe you don’t score four goals, but scoring a couple is a great place to be and we just need to maintain that effort and play three Mount periods. We’ve been close.”
La Salle (5-3-2 Division I) graduated or lost to transfer the bulk of last season’s sensational team, but led by goalie Max Cute and senior forwards Chris Gannon and James Louvet-McCue, the Rams have been formidable this season. The Rams’ only losses have been to the other three semifinalists and came by a combined four goals.
Cute leads the division with a .948 save percentage, while Louvet-McCue had a team-high 10 points and Gannon popped in a team-high five goals. The Rams downed Smithfield, 2-1, in the quarterfinals Tuesday night.
“They’re big, they’re physical and they’re tough to stop on the power play,” Merten said. “They have a good goalie, so we need to do what we do best to get them out of rhythm. They can cycle and they’re really tough to stop tight around the net. They’re different than last year because Zenas [Kennedy] had a bomb from the point, but they’re still good in the offensive zone.”
The series shifts to Smithfield Municipal Rink Saturday night for Game 2, while Adelard would be the site if Game 3 is necessary Monday night.