New England Hockey Hub

 

 

The weekend may have started with four hockey teams — Moses Brown, La Salle, Hendricken and Mount St. Charles — boasting undefeated records in Interscholastic League Division I play, but by late Saturday night only Mount St. Charles had an unblemished slate.

 

Moses Brown was the first of the private school powers to fall from the undefeated ranks when the Quakers dropped a 4-3 decision to Hendricken Friday night at Thayer Arena in Warwick. The victory upped Hendricken’s record to 4-0 in Division I play.

 

But Moses Brown didn’t spend much time dwelling on its tough loss to the Hawks. Saturday night the Quakers came back and handed La Salle its first loss in three games with a 4-2 decision at Cranston.

 

And while the Quakers and Rams were playing in Cranston, a large crowd was at Thayer watching the first match-up of the season between Hendricken and Mount St. Charles, the two teams who have combined for the past five Division I state championships.

 

The fans at Thayer certainly got their money’s worth.

 

“When [Hendricken coach Jim Creamer] and I shook hands on the ice after the game we both said, ‘Now that was a hockey game.’ It was a great high school hockey game,” said Dave Belisle, Mount St. Charles co-coach, after the Mounties posted a 4-2 victory.

 

Two goals within 36 seconds of each other beginning at the 59-second mark of the second period broke a scoreless deadlock and gave the Mount a lead it never relinquished.

 

Hendricken twice cut a two-goal deficit to one, but each time the Hawks pulled close the Mounties came back with another tally. Hendricken cut its early second period deficit to 2-1 only a minute after Mount’s second goal, but before the end of the second session Alex Erban pushed the Mount lead to 3-1 with his second goal of the game.

 

An unassisted goal by Shane Kavanagh at the nine-minute mark of the third period pulled Hendricken back within one again, but just over three minutes later Trevor Plante put the Mounties back in front by two.

 

“Senior leadership is a big part of this team with players like Erban, Plante, [Mike] Magerman and [Zach] Samborsky,” said Belisle.

 

Plante’s late third period insurance goal Saturday night was his 10th tally in five games so far this season. En route to their 5-0 record the Mounties have outscored the opposition, 36-3.

 

“We’re pretty fast,” said Belisle. “We hadn’t played anybody with Hendricken’s speed yet this year so it took our players a little while to adjust to the speed of the game. But we started moving the puck well in the second period.”

 

Saturday night’s victory was the second hard-fought triumph in two straight nights for the Mounties. Friday night, despite out-shooting Burrillville, 45-10, the Mounties only came away with a 2-0 victory as Burrillville junior goaltender Jacob Toback turned aside 43 shots