Hawks sweep Mount, earn berth in finals

Matt Metcalf, Sports Editor
Posted 3/17/15

The Hendricken hockey team came into this past weekend’s semifinal series against Mount as the heavy favorite.

For Mount, it had a down year in terms of the winning pedigree that it has …

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Hawks sweep Mount, earn berth in finals

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The Hendricken hockey team came into this past weekend’s semifinal series against Mount as the heavy favorite.

For Mount, it had a down year in terms of the winning pedigree that it has established over the years.

The Mounties finished the season with a .500 record and Hendricken’s superiority showed on Friday and Saturday night, carrying the majority of the play in 6-3 and 6-2 wins to sweep its way into the state finals, where it will meet top-seeded La Salle at Brown University this weekend.

Mount put the Hawks on their heels right away in game one, though, getting in on the forecheck and trapping Hendricken in the neutral zone.

“I can’t figure out how sluggish we were and how hard they were working,” Hendricken head coach Jim Creamer said. “I think we were just okay and they were really good. But then things settled down a bit.”

Getting on the board first certainly helped to settle things down.

Just under three minutes into the game, the Hawks had a bit of luck go their way.

Hendricken gained the attacking zone and Pat Creamer threw, what seemed to be, a harmless shot on the net. Unfortunately for Mount, goaltender Ryan Hanaway was screened and didn’t get a glimpse of the shot that beat him over the left shoulder, giving the Hawks a 1-0 lead.

Mount captain Keith Phaneuf answered on the power play less than three minutes later, after Reilly Miller was assessed a minor penalty for roughing, as Phaneuf cleaned up a rebound on the doorstep, tying the game 1-1.

But Hendricken was able to regain the lead in the final minute of the first period on the power play. Running the point on the power play, Eric Edwards released a shot through traffic that beat Hanaway glove-side to make it 2-1.

In the second period, Hendricken picked up its offensive production to take control of the game.

A phenomenal possession shift led to a goal at 5:14 of the second period, when Kiel Fuller, Brandon Mitchell and Alex Leite were able to put together a lengthy cycle, resulting in a goal from Fuller to make it 3-1.

“They play two lines and three defensemen, primarily, so we wanted to try to wear them down,” Jim Creamer said.

Mount’s Brian Simpson answered seconds later on a shot that caught Hawks’ goaltender Matt Kenneally off guard, but Hendricken answered in a big way, netting two power play goals – one each from Brandon Waterman and Miller – before the period ended to take a 5-2 lead into the intermission.

It was a tight game in the third period, with neither team surrendering many chances.

Mount cut its deficit to two with a seeing-eye shot through traffic from defenseman Tim Casilli on the power play with 4:09 remaining.

But Hendricken clamped down defensively in the final minutes and Pat Creamer added his second goal of the game on an empty-netter.

Following game one, Creamer knew that playing at Mount for game two wouldn’t be easy.

“It’s a different beast up there,” Jim Creamer said. “They always play us tough, no matter what the situation. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll be ready.”

As expected, the Mounties came out strong with their backs against the wall in game two.

Simpson scored at 2:27 of the first period, burying a rebound off of a shot from Jacob Glod on a 2-on-1, giving Mount an early 1-0 lead.

It took a while, but the Hawks weathered the early storm from Mount and settled in once again.

At 8:19 defenseman Steve Dumond kept the puck in at the offensive blue line and made a backhand feed to Waterman in the slot, who one-timed a shot over the glove of Mount goaltender Zachary Vanasse.

“I anticipated them coming out hard, but even though we were down, we were playing pretty well,” Jim Creamer said. “Give them all of the credit. They weren’t going to go down easy and they forced us to play at a higher level and gave us all that we could handle.”

Casilli answered on the power play at 11:33, beating Hawks’ goaltender Cam Doomany on a shot through traffic from the point, but Mount didn’t keep the lead for long.

The Hawks won a faceoff to the right of Vanasse in the offensive zone, and after grabbing the puck and walking out to the middle of the ice, Pat Creamer rifled a shot into the back of the cage to tie the game, 2-2.

That would be all of the scoring through the second period, as the Hawks and Mounties took a 2-2 tie into the third period, despite Hendricken doubling up Mount in shots, 18-9.

The third period began just like the second period, with neither team generating many scoring chances, while both teams got back and played defensively responsible.

There aren’t many pretty goals at Mount because of the lack of room in the corners and behind the nets, so it was only fitting that the game-winner would be an ugly goal.

At the 7:21 mark of the third period, a Hendricken shot missed wide of the Mount net, but ricocheted off the boards to the front of the net, where Ryan King was able to collect the puck through a number of bodies and slip the puck past Vanasse, giving the Hawks a 3-2 lead.  

Pat Creamer added his second goal of the game and fourth of the series less than two minutes later, upping Hendricken’s lead to 4-2.

Sam Milnes would add and empty-netter and King netted his second of the game late, as well, to add some insurance for the Hawks.

Doomany, a senior, played well in the win for Hendricken in a hostile environment, turning aside 15 of Mount’s 17 shots.

“I just thought it was time to give him a look tonight and he did a great job,” Jim Creamer said. “We’re fortunate to have two excellent goaltenders and I have confidence in both of those kids.”

The series sweep has put the Hawks in a position to potentially capture their fourth state title this weekend against La Salle.

Game one will be on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Brown, while game two will be on Saturday at 8 p.m.

The Rams got the better of the Hawks in the regular season, winning three of the four match-ups.

But, as we all know, records go out the window at this time of year.

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