Preliminary Round - Tuesday, February 23 vs. Narragansett-CHARIHO Co-op

After playing six games in 11 days to finish the regular season, Portsmouth had just one day off to practice before resuming its frenetic pace in the playoffs.  This season the top four squads in each of the three D-2 conferences earned postseason berths.  The winners of each conference and the fourth best team overall, each earned a bye, while the other eight teams competed in play-in games to determine which squads would make the final eight-team playoff bracket.

 

As the seventh seed overall, the Patriots drew the 12th place NARIHO Gulls in the preliminary round.  It was the second meeting this season between the two squads.  In the first contest the Patriots earned their first win of the short regular season with a 9-2 victory over the Gulls at the Levy Arena.

 

The Gulls proved to be a bigger challenge to the Patriots the second time around.  The game remained scoreless until near the end of the second period when Portsmouth broke it open with two goals in the span of just 15 seconds.  The first was an unassisted tally on a power play by Hunter Tavares, and the second was scored at even strength off a shot by Andrew Alvanas, assisted by Logan West.

 

Sam Stamoulis in goal continued to hold the Gulls scoreless in the third period, and the Patriots closed out the game with an empty net goal on a power play, scored by Tom Rocco, with an assist from Aidan Toner.

Playing in his 50th game for the Patriots, Stamoulis made 31 saves on the night.  The win was his third shutout of the season and his second in as many games. 

 

The victory advanced the Patriots into the eight-team playoff bracket.

 

Playoff Quarterfinals - Thursday, February 25, vs, North Smithfield

Unlike past seasons where each round of the state championship tournament consisted of a best of three series, this season the first two rounds of the playoffs used a single game, ‘one-and-done’ format.  With the season on the line, Portsmouth faced off with the North Smithfield Northmen for the first time this year.

At the end of the regular season the Northmen sported the third best record in D-2 at 7 wins and 2 losses.  The team had a bye through the preliminary round, but was seeded fourth in the quarterfinals because they finished second in the North Conference.  The team’s roster boasted the number one and number three top goal scorers in D-2, and the league’s best goalie.

 

The Patriots got behind early in the game when the team gave up a goal on a penalty kill just three minutes into the first period.  They came back after that and played even with the Northmen for the rest of the period.  But despite some good scoring opportunities the squad was held scoreless by North Smithfield’s ace goalie.

The Northmen took command of the contest early in the second period with three even-strength goals on three consecutive shots,  The goals were scored in the span of just two minutes and eight seconds, with the second and third tallies separated by only 20 seconds.  Suddenly the Patriots were down 4-0 with well over half of the game left to play.  The team played very well the remainder of the game, and although they generated some good scoring opportunities the Patriots were unable to close gap on the scoreboard.

 

The short, two minute lapse which cost Portsmouth the game and ended its season, was the team’s only weak spot in an otherwise very good effort against one of the league’s top teams.