The Cranston girls’ hockey team opened the season with a 6-0 loss to North Smithfield on Saturday night. It was an ominous start for the program as it took its first tentative steps into the reconfigured girls’ hockey division.

The Cranston co-op team finished in last place during the Division II regular season last winter, completing the year with a 1-17 record. The Thunderbirds went on to defeat Toll Gate in triple-overtime in the playoff quarterfinals, the program’s first signature win, before losing to La Salle in the semis.

But Cranston lost its top two scorers from last year’s team, would-be juniors Tayla Bent and Kathryn Tomaselli, and is venturing into uncharted territory with a largely inexperienced group.

Saturday’s loss to the Northmen provided a glimpse of how treacherous the new girls’ hockey landscape could potentially be.

North Smithfield, a Division II team along with Cranston last season, controlled play for the opening face-off. The Northmen tallied three goals in the first period, added one in the second and tacked on two more in the third to wrap up the lopsided win. They out shot the Thunderbirds 44-4 in 36 minutes of play and, as the game wore on, Cranston didn’t manage a shot in the third period.

“Two years ago we were a rebuilding team and, unfortunately, we’re rebuilding again,” Cranston coach Rick Zuckerman said. “North Smithfield is good team and they have good players. They’re going to get a lot of shots against us and we’re going to be faced with that against a lot of teams. But all I ask is that my girls play right until the end and they did that tonight. They never gave up.”

The Thunderbirds have their work cut out for them this season and will have to fight to keep from becoming a casualty in the divisional merge this year. Last winter girls’ hockey was split into two divisions, with five teams in D-I and four in D-II. But, with the elimination of the Lincoln [Division I] co-op, the Rhode Island Interscholastic League realigned both divisions into one eight-team league.

The new alignment means Cranston will have to play former D-I teams like Mount St. Charles and Bay View twice each season, as opposed to the one-game crossovers last year, while still competing with perennial D-II powers like La Salle and North Smithfield.

“When they first proposed the idea to us I was on the side that said ‘Whatever can help the league, whatever can help grow hockey, I’m for,’” Zuckerman said. “But I’m not sure how it is going to work though. Unfortunately, I think the new alignment is going to make it very tough for us to compete.”

Cranston already faced an uphill battle before losing both Bent and Tomaselli, who combined to account for more than half of the team’s offense last season. Sophomores Gio Boscia [one goal, eight assists] and Torri Adams [six goals, one assist] now return as the team’s leading scorers, with Steph Casale, Alisha Mattera, Kayla Matarese, Ching Ling Melanie Rogers all expected to help pick up the slack.

“Casale can move the puck for us and Matarese is a good player,” Zuckerman said. “And Ling is one of the girls who started out with us and has really come a long way. Every one of our kids has gotten better each year; you can see how far some of them have come since last year. But I’m not sure where our strength is right now.”

Assessing Cranston’s strengths proved difficult against the Northmen. North Smithfield dominated time of possession and attacked the Thunderbirds, who were playing down two starters. Sophomore goalie Hayley Patton faced a constant barrage of shots but turned most away. Patton’s ability to hold the opposition will be a key to Cranston’s success this season.

The next step for the Thunderbirds will be mixing the returning talent with the team’s inexperienced players.

“We have 20 kids playing but seven or eight of them are playing for the first time ever,” Zuckerman said. “So we need to work them in slowly with the other kids. That’s a challenge. Working in new kids while trying to get regular kids in. We wanted to do that [against North Smithfield] and use it as a gauge to see what we had, but it’s hard to tell when they had the puck for as long as they did.”

The Thunderbirds will face another tough test when they host Mount, last year’s Division I runner up, in their home opener on Saturday at 7:40 p.m. The Mounties are 2-0 so far this season with back-to-back opening-weekend wins over La Salle.

“It’s going to be a tough year, but I think we’ll be battling for the last playoff spot at the end of the season,” Zuckerman said. “Last year we won a playoff game but, this year, not everyone makes the playoffs. We’re going to have to work hard. I can think of two other teams that we’re going to be battling for that spot and, if we get it, then I think that is a successful season for us.”