Mistakes hurt Hawks in 8-1 loss to Notre Dame

By Matt Metcalf
Posted 1/17/17

Monday's matinee matchup with Notre Dame from West Haven, Connecticut, served as one of a handful of out-of-state tests for the Bishop Hendricken hockey team this season. Less than two weeks after tying Pope Francis, the

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Mistakes hurt Hawks in 8-1 loss to Notre Dame

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Monday’s matinee matchup with Notre Dame from West Haven, Connecticut, served as one of a handful of out-of-state tests for the Bishop Hendricken hockey team this season.

Less than two weeks after tying Pope Francis, the top-ranked team in Massachusetts, the Hawks failed to get anything going against the Green Knights, as miscue after miscue plagued the Hawks in an 8-1 loss.

Hendricken had the first flurry of chances after Vincent Paolillo was sent off for hooking at 2:28 of the opening period. The Hawks’ best chance on the man advantage came on a one-timer from the far point from Jacob Paolino, but Green Knights’ netminder Liam Connell displayed his lateral quickness, moving across the paint to deny Paolino with a left-pad save.

Moments after the power play, the Hawks stayed on the attack when Jax Zaroogian entered the offensive zone with speed and left a drop pass for Dan Cavanagh, who wristed a shot off the left post and out.

Those chances going by the wayside proved to be costly for the Hawks as Notre Dame got things going offensively after that.

Michael Bencivengo opened the scoring at 7:00 of the opening period. Gregory Caturano gained a step on his man below the goal line, circled the net and found Bencivengo at the far post to make it 1-0.

Cavanagh looked to answer with another good chance for Hendricken, but he found the left post again with a wrist shot, missing the equalizer by just an inch or two.

While Hendricken wasn’t getting any puck luck early, Notre Dame continued to find its scoring touch.

Just over six minutes after the first goal, Caturano made another good pass and found Ian Hayden, who was left all alone in the slot, for a goal that upped the Notre Dame advantage to 2-0.

One minute, 10 seconds later, Paolillo skated over the blue line on the power play and used a Hendricken defenseman as a screen before wristing a shot by the glove of Patrick Gribbin.

Just like that, it was 3-0 after one period and the Hawks were treading uphill. “We hit the post twice early, I think it was Danny Cavanagh both times,” Hendricken head coach Jim Creamer said.

“Things just went south after that. For whatever reason, and we’ve had this happen a couple of times to us, but when things go south with us, they go south. It went bad pretty quickly.”

Hendricken’s fortune didn’t get any better from there.

A poor giveaway by the Hendricken defense led to a breakaway goal at 3:37 of the second period by Caturano, who wristed a shot under the crossbar to increase the margin to 4-0.

Ryan Bayne tried to get the Hendricken bench going when he flipped a shot past a sprawling Connell at 6:16 of the second, but the Green Knights returned on the attack shortly after.

Notre Dame would answer with four goals during the remainder of the period. Caturano and Paolillo each added another, and senior forward Matt Muro potted a pair of goals within a span of 16 seconds to make it 8-1 after the first 30 minutes.

“We gave up probably five goals within four feet of our net,” Creamer said. “(Notre Dame) worked hard and they deserved it, but we did not work hard. We got outworked, they won little battles and then when there were points when we could’ve had a little luck, we didn’t get any luck."

Hendricken put together a better third period, but chances were few and far between on both sides.

Fortunately for the Hawks, the lopsided loss didn’t occur in league play.

They’ll have two opportunities to bounce back this weekend. Hendricken will host Burrillville at Thayer at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and travel to Cranston Ice Rink to take on rival La Salle at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

“We didn’t get any offense today from the guys that we usually get offense from,” Creamer said. “You’re not going to get that all the time, but you have to be able to play both ends of the ice. Hopefully we’ll get better.”

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