The Mt. Hope Huskies hockey team played a pair of games over the weekend as they push to make a run for the playoffs. First up, Mt. Hope hosted the Pilgrim Patriots at Portsmouth Abbey in a rematch of last year’s DIII Championship final. After a scoreless first period, Mt Hope goes on the power play early in period two. Senior Ryan Cordeiro passes the puck to Junior Cam Rancourt as Senior Jack Dolan curls and breaks to the net. Rancourt sends the pass back post to Dolan who scores to take an early 1-0 lead. Minutes later, it’s the Huskies turn to play short handed as Pilgrim goes on the power play. At center ice, Senior Kyrik Cordiero steals the puck and skates in alone on the goaltender. He fakes the shot and goes backhand, lifting the puck over the Pilgrim goaltender for the shorthanded goal and a 2-0 Huskies lead after two periods. Junior goaltender Devon Loiselle had a busy night in goal for the Huskies. Loiselle made 31 saves in all, and several key stops along the way to keep Pilgrim at bay. In the third period, Husky Senior Quinn Baldwin-Kress passes the puck to fellow Senior Dylan Andrade manning the blue line. Andrade uncorks a blast from the blue line. The Pilgrim goaltender makes the save, but can’t control the rebound. Freshmen David Benevides pounces on the puck and rifles it home for a 3-0 Huskies lead. Pilgrim quickly answers to make it 3-1. As the third period continues, Pilgrim has more opportunities to score but Loiselle neutralizes the attack and stands tall in goal. With minutes remaining, Dolan scores his second of the game to ice the 4-1 victory for the Huskies. On Saturday night, it was a 9pm puck drop at Adelard Arena in Woonsocket as the Mt Hope Huskies hockey team faced off against the Woonsocket/Scituate (WS) Co-op team. Minutes into the first period, the Huskies go on the power-play. Senior Jack Dolan wins the face-off and drops the puck to fellow Senior Ryan Cordeiro who blasts a shot on net. Junior Cam Rancourt skates to the net, collects the rebound and scores for an early Huskies 1-0 lead. Later in the period, the Huskies take a penalty and are forced to play short-handed. Cordeiro forwards the puck to Dolan who skates into the offensive zone and threads a nifty pass to Freshman David Benevides. Benevides gathers the puck and fires it past the WS goaltender to make it 2-0 in favor of the Huskies. Both teams continue to have chances on both ends of the ice but the second period comes to a close with the score remaining 2-0 in favor of the Huskies. In a wild third period, WS scores to get within one. Minutes later and back on the power play, the Huskies respond. Cordeiro fires a shot from the left face-off circle. It gets deflected and lands on the stick of Rancourt in the right face-off circle. Rancourt unloads a twisted wrister and beats the WS goaltender up high for a 3-1 Huskies lead. The Huskies continue to attack. Cordeiro collects his fourth assist of the evening by forwarding the puck to Dolan, who turns on the jets and beats his defender into the offensive zone and scores with a wicked snap shot top shelf over the WS goaltender's shoulder to make it a 4-1 Huskies lead. WS scores one more but the game ends with a Huskies 4-2 victory. Defensively, the efforts of the Huskies defenseman have to be recognized. Cordeiro, Seniors Devin Lannan, Dylan Andrade, James Moreira and Junior Keegan Hanley played solid defense throughout the game. Junior goaltender Devin Loiselle was a steadying presence between the pipes all night long for the Huskies, making several key saves and finishing the night with 26 saves.
–Gene Reynolds/contributor