It was the final game of the regular season for both teams and it could not have been a better set-up.  The contest was the inevitable showdown of the season for the Aquidneck Island rivals, the Portsmouth Patriots and the RMR Co-op of Rogers, Middletown, and Rocky Hill.  At stake was top spot in the final Division II season standings.  The winner would enter into a tie breaker situation with East Greenwich for first place and the loser would finish in fourth, just two points behind the first place team.  And so the teams met Saturday afternoon at the Abbey.

It was Portsmouth’s Seniors Recognition Game, the traditional last home game of the campaign before the playoffs begin, in which the team honors its seniors for their contributions throughout their high school hockey careers.  The seniors on the team, nine players and two student team managers were individually introduced and met on the ice by relatives or special friends after which the seniors presented flowers to their guests and posed for pictures.  When the occasion was complete, the teams warmed up and the game began.

The Patriots came out hard, and for the first five minutes of the game, had RMR back on their heels and trapped in their own zone.  Although Portsmouth was in complete control from the opening faceoff, the squad was unable to translate that into shots on the RMR net.  As it held off the Portsmouth onslaught, RMR slowly regained its composure and reversed the momentum of the game.  They effectively took back control and made a statement to that effect with the first goal of the game at 10:26 of the first period.  In what was anticipated to be a tightly played clash, the all-important first goal went to RMR.  At the end of the period the Patriots had been outshot 6-4 and trailed 1-0 on the scoreboard.

The teams skated more evenly in the second period.  Portsmouth weathered four minor penalties in the session with three of them being assessed in the final six minutes of play before the intermission.  Still, despite playing shorthanded for over six and a half minutes the Patriots held RMR to just five shots on goal for the entire period, while taking six themselves.  In the end neither team notched a goal, and the score remained 1-0 as the squads headed to the dressing rooms while the ice was resurfaced.

Early in the third period with the Patriots skating four-on-four, Ben O’Hearn got the puck, charged up the right side boards, and tied the score for Portsmouth with a blistering slapshot from just inside RMR’s blue line.  Jack Cavanagh and Cam Mello picked up the assists on the goal.  The Patriots euphoria for having gotten back into the game was still fresh when it was crushed by RMR just 41 seconds later when they scored on a power play to take the lead once again.  With less than three minutes gone in the final period, there was plenty of time for the Patriots to pick up another goal, but it didn’t happen.  With their momentum stopped the team never got going again.  RMR added an insurance goal at the midway point of the period to make the score 3-1, which stood to the end of the game.  Including its goal, Portsmouth managed just three shots in the final period to RMR’s six.

Gage Aguiar made 14 saves for the Patriots on the way to the loss.  Portsmouth had only 13 shots in the game.  The Patriots failed to score on two power play attempts, while giving up one goal on four penalty kills.

The loss dropped Portsmouth to fourth place in the final Division II standings.  The team will face the fifth place team, South Kingstown, in the first round of the playoffs beginning next weekend.  The Patriots will have home ice advantage for the best of three series which is set to begin next Friday, March 11.  Times and places for each of the playoff games will be announced early next week.  That information will be posted on the home page of this web site.