Portsmouth at Coventry

 

Last Friday night the Patriots took a ride to the Benny Magiera Municipal Rink at the West Warwick Civic Center for their first ‘away’ game of the season.  There they met the Coventry Oakers on the ice for the first of two games the teams are scheduled to play and came away with the team’s second win of the season: a 7-4 victory.

 

Coventry has the smallest team in the league with only 13 skaters and two goalies. Despite the Oakers’ lack of depth, the squad came out strong and put Portsmouth on notice with the first goal of the game just 22 seconds after the opening face-off.   Before the first period ended, Portsmouth answered with two goals by Chase Pascoe, the first of which was a shorthanded tally.

 

The Patriots took control of the game in the second period as freshman forward Hadrian Doughtry, and veteran defensemen Dan Biello and Steve Madden all scored.  The Oakers managed to get one goal back but at the end of the second period Portsmouth was up 5-2.

 

Portsmouth defenseman Rafe Dionne padded the Patriots’ lead with two goals early in the final period.  The team then appeared to ease their effort which allowed Coventry to ring up two more goals in the latter half of the period.

 

Game Notes:

• Five of the seven Patriots goals were scored by freshmen.
• In addition to his two goals, Rafe Dionne added an assist to finish the game with three points.  His first goal, assist, and three-point game were all the firsts of his high school career.
• Luke West was credited with the first assist of his high school career when he added the helper on Dionne’s second goal.
• Chase Pascoe’s first high school shorthanded goal was also the first for the team this season.

 

Patriots versus Gulls

 

Portsmouth was back on its home ice at the Abbey on Sunday to take on the co-op team from Narragansett - Chariho, more commonly referred to as the Nariho Gulls.  In what was the first of two games on the schedule this season with the Gulls, the Patriots were dealt a 2-1 loss, the team’s first defeat in regular season, head-to-head play, in over a year.

 

The Patriots got on the scoreboard in the first period with a goal by Shane Temple assisted by Rafe Dionne.  The team held the lead until Nariho scored on a power play to tie the game five minutes into the second period.  The Gulls then notched the go-ahead goal a minute and a half into the third period.

Overall, Portsmouth played well enough to win, but ran into one of the Gulls veteran goalies who got hot playing his first game of the season.  The team outshot Nariho 29-25 but couldn’t solve the goalie before time ran out.

 

Johnny Cabral, in goal for the Patriots, had a remarkable game.  He came up big on a number of difficult saves to keep the game close and give his squad a chance to win.  He finished the game with a very good 92 percent save percentage.

 

Game Note:

• Portsmouth’s last regular season loss on the ice was in the final game of the 2021-22 season, with North Kingstown, on February 20. 2022.

 

The team will practice this week and then take a break for the Christmas Holiday.  The squad will practice once more, on Thursday, December 28 at the Driscol Arena in Fall River before playing two games over the New Year weekend.  On Friday, December 29 the Patriots will travel to URI’s Boss Arena to meet the South Kingstown - Westerly Rebels.  That game will begin at 6:30 pm.  Then on New Year’s Day at 2:30 pm at the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket it’s the Patriots first game with the newly organized Blackstone Valley Schools co-op team.  Referred to as BVS, the team is comprised of players from Providence Country Day, St. Raphael Academy, The Wheeler School, North Smithfield, Johnston, and North Providence.

 

It will be a holiday weekend - plan now to see the games and root for the Patriots.

 

See you at the rink.