Portsmouth celebrated its 30^th season of high school hockey and then celebrated a huge overtime win over the East Greenwich Avengers Sunday evening at the Abbey.  A good sized crowd, which included eight former Patriots players from the school’s first hockey team, saw the squad turn in its best performance of the season.  The win kept alive the team’s chance to own the top spot in the final Division II standings when the regular season wraps up next weekend.

The Patriots knew the Avengers were a formidable opponent.  East Greenwich boasts the top two scorers among all Rhode Island Divisions in John Ferguson and Max Hagenberg, and one of the best net minders in the State with Jake Horoho.  Portsmouth had come out on the losing end of the team’s previous two games with East Greenwich this season, one non-league tournament game and one league game that counted in the standings.  In both contests Portsmouth turned in solid performances that might even have been good enough to win, until mistakes late in the games led to the losses.  The squad salvaged a point for the standings in the league game by losing in overtime.

Once the game got under way the play started off evenly but it was not long until the Patriots faced their first test when they sustained a penalty at 2:11 of the first period.  Skating shorthanded, the penalty killers went to work and held the Avengers to just two shots, which goalie Matt Nordhill handled easily.  Once Portsmouth was back at full strength though, it took East Greenwich just 32 seconds to open the he scoring, taking a 1-0 lead at the 4:43 mark.  Portsmouth was undaunted and continued its solid play after the goal.  If there were any doubts about the way the contest was headed, they were erased by Jack Cavanagh when he tallied at 8:20.  Christian Schenck got the assist on the game tying goal.  The Patriots faced another setback with just over a minute remaining in the period when they were called for a major boarding penalty.  The squad would be shorthanded for five minutes.  The penalty killers were effective and did not allow an Avengers shot in the final minute of the period.  Each team had managed seven shots in the first session and the score remained tied 1-1 at the first intermission.

The second period began with Portsmouth having to skate shorthanded for nearly four minutes as the major penalty continued; a tough situation against a high scoring team like East Greenwich.  Perhaps not surprisingly then, the Avengers did break through and got a shot past Nordhill to take the lead in the game once again.  And Portsmouth’s penalty was not over.  With their opponent’s goal coming 2:13 into the period, the squad still had another 1:43 to weather before returning to full strength.  On major, non-personal conduct related penalties, the player remains in the box, and his team skates shorthanded, until the entire penalty has been served, no matter how many goals are scored against his team.  The Patriots met the challenge and kept the Avengers from adding to their lead.  When the team returned to full strength, it was within a goal of the lead and went back to work.

Just prior to the midway point of the period, Portsmouth went on the power play for the first time in the game.  Although the squad was unable to score with the man advantage, the penalty marked a turning point in the game.  The Patriots had been slowly building momentum from the time their major penalty ended.  That crested on the power play as the team launched five shots on net during the two minutes East Greenwich had a player in the penalty box.  From that point, through the remainder of the second period, Portsmouth was in complete control the game.  The squad added four more shots before the period ended but was unable to solve Horoho.  The Patriots had turned the corner in the game and held a 9-7 advantage in shots during the period but still trailed 2-1 as the teams headed to the locker rooms for the second intermission.

Portsmouth’s players knew that the hard work they put into the latter half of the second period would eventually pay off if they were patient and kept at it.  When the teams returned to the ice for the third period that is exactly what the Patriots had in mind.  From the first faceoff of the period Portsmouth totally dominated the Avengers.  The team kept East Greenwich pinned in its own zone for most of the period and unleashed a flurry of shots on goal.  The payoff came early when Ben O’Hearn took a pass from Evan Alvanas and charged into the Avengers zone.  After some quick moves to pick his way through several defenders he fired a point blank shot from the left side of the net that beat Horoho cleanly.  At 3:15 into the final period the score was tied 2-2 and the Patriots owned the game play.

The Patriots were in such overwhelming control that even taking a minor penalty with 9:16 remaining in the period had little effect on them.  The penalty kill teams went to work and East Greenwich was never able to establish itself in Portsmouth’s zone despite having the extra skater on the ice.  The Avengers finished their power play without a shot on goal, and once again found themselves being steamrollered by the Patriots.  But despite their excellent efforts and generating several good scoring chances, they were unable to get the puck past Horoho again to take the lead. 

With 1:06 remaining, East Greenwich’s Ferguson, who had been effectively neutralized by Portsmouth the entire game, was called for hooking Josh Arkins as he headed in for a shot.  With the Avengers’ best player in the penalty box, the Patriots power play went to work, but were unable to solve Horoho before the buzzer to end the period.  At the end of regulation time, and the score tied at two goals apiece, the game headed to overtime.

Portsmouth’s domination in the third period had been utterly complete.  The team won 14 of 15 faceoffs, and outshot the Avengers 16-1 in the final session.  Were it not for Horoho’s outstanding goaltending the Patriots would have run away with the game by several goals before the end of regulation time.

With 54 seconds remaining on its power play, Portsmouth won the faceoff to start the overtime session, and quickly moved the puck into the East Greenwich zone.  Shortly, Alvanas went to the left side boards high in the zone to retrieve the puck and was tied up there by one of the Avengers.  After some hard work he dug the puck out and moved deeper into the zone along the boards before cutting toward the net.  At the bottom of the left faceoff circle he snapped off a wrist shot that slipped past Horoho and into the Avengers net.  At 39 seconds into the overtime Alvanas’ power play goal was the game winner.

As the five skaters on the power play gathered in the left corner behind the Avengers net to congratulate Alvanas, the entire player bench charged onto the ice and joined them in the celebration.  The ensuing dog pile of players reflected the emotional investment of the entire team in this particular game, and its significance in the Patriots’ charge to the playoffs.

Statistically the game belonged entirely to Portsmouth.  The squad won 73.5 percent of the faceoffs, and outshot the Avengers 34-15.  Nordhill had 13 saves in collecting his tenth win of the season.

The playoff picture was complicated slightly by East Greenwich forcing the game to overtime before the Patriots prevailed.  Had Portsmouth won in regulation, the game with RMR next Saturday would have meant the winner of that contest would cleanly finish in first place in the division and the loser in fourth.  By coming away with a point for its overtime loss, East Greenwich changed the equation a little bit.  Barring any major upsets in the final games of the season for East Greenwich and North Smithfield, or in RMR’s game next Friday night, the winner of the Portsmouth - RMR game will enter into a tie breaker situation for first place with East Greenwich.  Because East Greenwich split its season games with both Portsmouth and RMR, the tie breaker will step to its secondary or, perhaps, even tertiary considerations to resolve the Division winner.  In any case if Portsmouth defeats RMR on Saturday, it will finish either first or second in the division.  If the squad loses to RMR, or if the game ends in a tie, the Patriots will finish fourth in the standings

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Portsmouth does have one more game to play before closing out the regular season with RMR.  That game will be at 7:30 Friday evening, March 4, at the Abbey. Portsmouth’s opponent will be the Barrington Eagles, a Division I Eccleston team.  The contest will count in the league standings for Barrington, but will be considered a non-league game for the Patriots, therefore, win or lose, it will have no effect on Portsmouth’s bid to finish atop the league standings.

The following day, Saturday, March 5, the big match-up with RMR will take place at 2:30 pm at the Abbey.  Please note that the starting time for the game, which was originally 6:00 pm has been moved to the earlier time.  This game will be a big event.  Not only is first place in the final league standings at stake, it will also be Portsmouth’s Seniors’ Recognition Game, in which the Patriots honor all the seniors on the team in their final regular season home game at the Abbey.  The rink will be decorated and a special ceremony will take place before the game.  And as if that is not enough to get you to the game there is the matter of Portsmouth looking to snap its record of not having beaten Middletown, either as a single team or as part of the RMR co-op, since the Islanders moved to Division II six seasons ago.  With a record of 11 losses and three ties during that period, the Patriots will be aiming to put one in the win column and start a new trend of victories.  You truly have nothing more important to do next Saturday afternoon than to get to this game, and the Patriots would love to have your support.  With all that is at stake in this game, and the festivities that will be a part of it, there is expected to be a very large crowd at the event.  Get there early to get a parking place and to stake out your spot to watch the game.  But even more important, get there and root for the Patriots to win and skate into the playoffs as the top seed.  See you at the rink.