Bishop Hendricken continued its early dominance over Division I boys’ hockey on Friday night, as the Hawks got hat tricks from Pat Creamer and Peter Krekorian en route to a 9-0 thumping of Cranston Co-op, pushing Hendricken’s goal total to 29 through its first three games.

The Hawks also got a stout defensive effort from the back line, and netminder Patrick Gribbin answered the bell whenever he was tested before giving way to John McCarthy in the third period, who polished off the shutout.

“Truthfully, it probably was,” Hendricken head coach Jim Creamer said when asked if Friday night was his team’s most complete effort thus far. “We were a bit sluggish coming out last Friday, and Saturday night was a little bit better. We picked it up and got better this week – Andrew Hopgood came back and Mike Vendetti, a senior, came back, so we added two seniors. That certainly helped.”

Hendricken’s top line was a matchup problem for Cranston from the opening faceoff.

It took the Pat Creamer, Krekorian and Hopgood trio just 37 seconds to find the back of the net. Hopgood fed Pat Creamer down low, and the senior sent a pass out in front to Krekorian, who batted a backhand by D.J. DeAngelis to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.

Hopgood, who was making his hockey debut after missing both games the previous weekend due to the football Super Bowl, notched a pair of assists, including one on his first shift back.

Getting into hockey shape is a bit different than conditioning for other sports, but it didn’t take long for Hopgood to transition from football.

“No, really I’m not,” Jim Creamer said when asked if he was surprised Hopgood was able to transition from sport-to-sport so quickly. “I might have been two years ago, but nothing he does surprises me. He’s a special kid. He just jumps right in like it’s nothing. He got on the ice on Tuesday and had brown leaves stuck to his stick, he hadn’t skated since last month. On Tuesday, he was our best player at practice.”

Cranston’s Marco Palumbo was whistled for interference at 7:37 of the opening period, and Hendricken capitalized.

With 22 seconds remaining on the man advantage, junior defenseman Matt Rickard sent a shot on net from the point through traffic. DeAngelis was able to fight off the first shot, but Pat Creamer was waiting on the doorstep to put away the rebound.

Just four minutes later, Pat Creamer was at it again. Freshman Cam Adamec fired a puck from the left point that ricocheted to Pat Creamer in the slot for his second goal of the game, upping the Hawks’ advantage to 3-0 in the waning minutes of the first period.

Hendricken’s top line kept its momentum going into the second period, pinning Cranston in its own end with its cycle game and physicality. And, at 4:02 of the period, Krekorian ripped a shot on goal that was once again finished off by Pat Creamer at the edge of the crease, completing his hat trick and pushing the lead to 4-0.

For Cranston, it had trouble matching the speed and strength of Hendricken’s top line.

“That top line is going to be tough to match up against all year,” Cranston head coach Matt Brannon said. “They have two kids who are well over 200 pounds and two skilled kids from the state championship team last year. They’re just experienced.”

Michael Shaw, Krekorian and Michael DiMascolo netted goals before the end of the period as well, giving Hendricken a 7-0 lead at the break.

Krekorian finished off his hat trick on assists from Pat Creamer and Hopgood 38 seconds into the third period, giving that line six goals for the game.

“Krekorian has the speed and Pat’s got the ability to finish,” Jim Creamer said. “You throw Andrew in there with his strength, size and hockey sense, that’s a pretty good line. They’re all older kids and certainly complement each other.”

Matt Dumond closed the scoring at 8:30 of the final period when he rolled out of the corner on the power play and wristed a shot to the blocker side to make it 9-0.

The Hawks continued their early success on Saturday night when they came away with a 6-1 victory at Burrillville, improving their record to 4-0.

However, Hendricken will get its toughest tests of the season this weekend.

It’ll play undefeated La Salle (3-0) on Friday at Smithfield Municipal Ice Rink at 8:30 p.m., before traveling to Mount for a 9 p.m. puck drop on Saturday night.

“Things are going to get tougher for us quickly,” Jim Creamer said. “We have Mount and La Salle next weekend, so things get tougher pretty quick.”