Mariners’ first-period surge too much for Pats to overcome

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 3/10/15

The Narragansett boys’ ice hockey team outplayed Pilgrim High School from the start, notching eight first-period goals en route to a 12-4 victory on Senior Night at the Bradford R. Boss Ice Arena …

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Mariners’ first-period surge too much for Pats to overcome

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The Narragansett boys’ ice hockey team outplayed Pilgrim High School from the start, notching eight first-period goals en route to a 12-4 victory on Senior Night at the Bradford R. Boss Ice Arena on Saturday.

Senior forward Kurt Richardson scored five times on the night for Narragansett and sophomore forward Kevin McKnight potted two goals. Seven Mariners put the puck past two different Pilgrim goaltenders on the night. Senior goaltender Joseph Iannelli had to stop fewer than 10 shots to pick up the win and was pulled with eight minutes remaining in the second period.

“Any time you can win on Senior Night obviously it makes everything much more special,” Narragansett head coach Chris Lussier said. “Unfortunately, you’re in a game where you don’t want to embarrass the other team, but at the same time, you want to try to be able to play everybody because playoffs start next weekend. So you’re in a catch-22 as far as you don’t want to run up the score, but at the same time, you got to still play the game.”

The Mariners (11-8-2, 9-7-2) secured themselves the No. 4 seed in the Division II playoffs with the win. Pilgrim (0-19, 0-17), despite breaking its three-game scoreless streak, lost its eighth consecutive game by four or more goals.

Narragansett did not take long to get on the board, as Richardson scored his first on the night two minutes and 28 seconds into the first period. Less than a minute later, McKnight hit twine when he tipped in a pass from junior defenseman Eike Glaeser.

The Patriots cut the deficit to one at the five-minute mark, when Iannelli could not cover up a shot from senior captain Matt Parente.

“Our season has been, from day one, [that] we control what we do,” Pilgrim head coach Steve Henn said. “We can’t control anything about the other team. We can’t control the refs. All we can control is what we bring to the table. And we’re going to battle with what we have. Our job is to battle every game, battle every shift and when we consistently do that, when a little more talent is added into the equation, that’s what leads to wins.”

Then, the Narragansett offense took over.

Junior defenseman Bryan Morvan picked up his only goal on the night two minutes after Parente’s score to extend the Mariners’ lead back to two. Glaeser got in on the scoring 27 seconds later, when he took passes from Richardson and senior forward Zachary Natalizia and beat junior goaltender Kameron Murphy in front of the net.

The Mariners scored their fifth goal in seven shots less than a minute later, when McKnight registered his second off an assist from Richardson. After a shot rang off the post just prior, Richardson collected the puck and fired a shot past Murphy for his second score.

Soon after Narragansett found itself on the power play, it only took it nine seconds to capitalize. Senior Dylan Jardon got on the score sheet when he connected to increase the advantage to six goals. Richardson capped the first period when he completed his hat trick with just more than a minute remaining on a shot nearly parallel to the left post.

“We just have to play better, bottom line,” Henn said. “The goal differential, it is what it is. We have to button up our D-zone. We got to button up our O-zone and our neutral zone coverage. That just comes down to everything. And it also comes down to not stopping the game. We got to keep playing hockey no matter what happens. Things will go our way, we just got to keep playing.”

Junior goaltender Cameron Gagnon took over for the Patriots at the start of the second period, but he could not hold off the Mariners’ attack for too long. Natalizia began the scoring when he beat Gagnon from the left side of the net. More than a minute later, Richardson tallied his fourth of the game to bring Narragansett into double-digits. He would also net his fifth before the period came to a close to extend the lead to 11-1.

Pilgrim failed to take advantage of power-play opportunities during the second. Penalties were assessed to McKnight and senior defenseman Skyler Wise within the final five minutes of the period, but the Patriots were unable to capitalize.

Pilgrim was able to break out its offense a little more in the third period. Sophomore forward Patrick Reilly scored his only goal of the game eight seconds into the action. Senior defenseman Brett Casale followed with another less than two minutes later. Narragansett freshman forward Austin Pratt and Pilgrim junior Dean Russo would also register scores before the final buzzer sounded.

“It’s good to see [the scoring] because a lot of people don’t see the work we put in behind the scenes,” Henn said. “These guys work hard every single day. Every single day, no matter what, they work hard, they battle and nobody can take that away from them and that’s something I can never be disappointed with. Despite the score, despite the record, the fact is we’re battling.”

The Mariners dropped their final game of the regular season against North Smithfield on Sunday, 6-1, while Pilgrim closed out its season with a 12-0 loss to East Greenwich.

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