Fifth seeded Portsmouth opened its best of three game quarterfinal series with fourth seededWest Warwick, Exeter, West Greenwich (WWEWG) on March 1 at the Benny Magiera rink.

The game was a back-and-forth affair that saw three different lead changes over the three periods.  The Knight-Wizards took the lead from the Patriots for the final time midway through the final period.  With the clock winding down on regulation play and Portsmouth down a goal 4-3, the coaches called goalie Johnny Cabral to the bench to add an extra skater.  With 18 seconds remaining WWEWG took a penalty for high sticking which left PHS skating six on four.  In the span of just six seconds the team won the faceoff in the Wizards’ zone, Steve Madden controlled the puck and fired a pass to Luke Brule who buried it in the opponents net to tie the game for the fourth tie in the game.

With only 12 seconds remaining in the third period it looked like the game would be headed to

overtime.  But things happen fast in hockey.  WWEWG won the neutral zone faceoff and skated the puck into the Patriots zone.  It ended up on the stick of one of their players who shot from the left faceoff circle.  The puck found its way into the Portsmouth goal with less than one second remaining before the horn sounded to end the period and the game.

PHS outshot WWEWG 41 to 25 in the game.  Besides Brule’s goal Portsmouth had two tallies from Shane Temple and a power play goal by Dan Biello.  Temple also had an assist to finish the game with three points.