Portsmouth was shut out for the first time this season, and the team suffered its biggest defeat of the current campaign in a 6-0 drubbing at the hands of the North Smithfield Northmen Friday night at the Smithfield Municipal Rink.  Playing for the first time in two weeks, the Patriots quickly found themselves out of contention in the game as the Northmen scored three goals in the first period, then added three more in the second.

The game was a stark contrast to the closely played contest when the teams faced off with each other at the Abbey two weeks ago.  Although Portsmouth lost that game by a score of 3-2, the team was competitive the entire time, and the event was not decided until the final two minutes of regulation play.  The Patriots had proven in that game that they could skate with the first place Northmen.  Unfortunately the squad was unable to equal its previous performance while skating on North Smithfield’s home ice yesterday.

The six tallies by the Northmen came on only 19 shots.  Portsmouth’s starting goalie, Gage Aguiar was replaced in the net by Matt Nordhill midway through the second period after North Smithfield’s sixth goal.  Nordhill kept the Northmen from further adding to their lead and finished the game with five saves.

Offensively the Patriots were held to just eleven shots in the contest, with six of those coming off the stick of Ben O’Hearn.

Portsmouth is on the ice again tonight at the back rink at the Thayer Arena in Warwick.  There the team will host the Narragansett Mariners at 8:00 pm.  This is the final “home” game of the regular season for the Patriots.  It will be the third time Portsmouth has played Narragansett this season.  The teams previously met once for the regular season, and once in the Hockey Scores for Hunger Tournament during the Christmas – New Year holiday period.  The Patriots won both of those games.  Narragansett is currently holding down the sixth spot in the standings, one point ahead of Portsmouth.  That makes this a very important game for the Patriots who are looking to improve on their seventh place position as the regular season begins to wind down.  Head over to Warwick tonight and support the Patriots in their drive to the playoffs.  See you at the rink.