Hendricken scores five in a row for victory over Hamden

Posted 2/11/14

Head coach Jim Creamer thinks his Bishop Hendricken hockey team is at its best when it’s busy and in rhythm. He’ll soon get his wish, with the Hawks scheduled to begin a stretch of five games in …

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Hendricken scores five in a row for victory over Hamden

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Head coach Jim Creamer thinks his Bishop Hendricken hockey team is at its best when it’s busy and in rhythm. He’ll soon get his wish, with the Hawks scheduled to begin a stretch of five games in eight days on Friday.

Before that, though, the Hawks had to battle through their most uneven week of the season – and they were happy to survive it.

Coming off a week of practice that was interrupted by two snow days, the Hawks hosted Hamden, Conn., on Friday at Thayer Arena, fell behind 3-1 but scored five unanswered goals to win 6-3.

“We had a choppy week with the snow days,” Creamer said. “We’re better when we’re going on a regular basis. I just didn’t like the way we were playing. We just weren’t going, but it was nice to see the kids come back. I was really happy with how we did in the last three minutes of the second period. We came out in the third and I thought we played much better.”

The match-up with Hamden is one of two out-of-state games for the Hawks that count toward the league standings. With the victory, Hendricken improved to 8-2-1. Hamden stayed on Rhode Island ice Saturday and lost 4-2 to Mount St. Charles.

The Mounties lead Division I with a 10-1 record, but they’ve also played two more games than the Hawks.

For Hendricken, getting the win Friday was crucial for keeping pace.

And early on, it didn’t look promising.

The Green Dragons got a power play goal from Anthony Rascati less than two minutes into the game to take a 1-0 lead. The Hawks answered on a goal by Chris Shalvey with an assist to Brandon Waterman, but they found themselves behind again early in the second period. Just as a Hamden power play expired, the Green Dragons got a goal from Samuel Carignan to take a 2-1 lead with 13:41 left in the second period.

“I don’t think we played great,” Creamer said. “It’s a credit to Hamden – they sort of forced our hand there. We got down on those two penalties.”

And it only got worse for the Hawks. With 4:14 left in the second period Jeremy Routh scored on an odd-man rush to give Hamden a 3-1 lead.

“We were sort of on our heels,” said Hendricken senior Liam Watkinson.

But the period wasn’t over – and the Hawks made the rest of it count. With 2:21 left, Hamden’s Michael DeMatteis was whistled for a penalty. Just 10 seconds into the power play, Steven Dumond buried a slap shot to make it 3-2.

“That was our second power play unit and they did a nice job,” Creamer said. “Steven got a good shot to the net and Brandon Mitchell did a good job screening. That got us going.”

With 43 seconds left in the period, the Hawks struck again. Patrick Creamer skated into the zone and got the puck to Jamie Armstrong in the slot. He slipped it to Brandon Mitchell on the right, and Mitchell swept in an easy goal to tie the game.

Hamden had a chance just eight seconds later, but Hendricken goalie Matt Kenneally stopped a point-blank shot by Carignan and the teams went to the locker room tied 3-3.

In the third period, the Hawks carried the action better but Jim Creamer felt they weren’t getting enough shots to the net.

“We need to throw the puck at the net, play a little ugly,” he said. “We don’t score a lot of pretty, pretty goals. We’re better off when we muck it up a little bit.”

Soon enough, they were crashing it.

With 5:20 left, Josh Olson slipped a pass from behind the net to Watkinson, who had space in front and beat Chris Feldman to give Hendricken its first lead of the game.

“I was just trying to get to the front of the net and trust my linemates,” Watkinson said. “Olson got there, [Jonathan] Finelli got the hit on. They saw me in front and I banged it home.”

With 1:26 left, the Hawks added some insurance on a goal from Finelli. Watkinson assisted. Andrew Fera tacked on an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Kenneally finished with 22 saves for the Hawks.

“We played a lot better in the third period,” Creamer said. “Not just scoring goals, but we were getting more chances, skating better.”

The result was a solid victory.

“Hamden is well-coached and they play you hard all the time,” Creamer said. “Some years they’re better than others, but that’s the effort you get from them all the time. They’re tough to play against. They would do well in our league.”

Hendricken has now won three straight since a surprising loss to Smithfield on Jan. 24. The upcoming busy stretch will do a lot for determining where the Hawks end up in the final standings. They’ll play Coventry and Cranston West over the weekend before playing Mount St. Charles next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Thayer Arena, in a game that was postponed from earlier in the year. The Hawks will play Mount twice in its final five games.

“Starting next Friday, we play five in eight days,” Creamer said. “That’ll be a big stretch. We’ll have to get after it.”

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    RI ACLU Stephen Brown Notifies Warwick Minimum Housing Board Violated OMA Open Meetings Act At this meeting the chair jude plante announced there would be no electronics allowed, taping,videoing etc. I objected he related town council atty robt sgroi confirmed they could demand this or call the police if I didn't comply. I shut the tablet off. But I stated I would contact Stephen Brown RI ACLU and AG regarding this violation of open meetings act ri 4246-1. He said alright. I did, Mr Brown sent out notice they violated RI OMA . Town atty Ruggerio related shouldn't of and only Mr Sgroi apologized to me.This was done intentionally to block me . I have had numerous problems with the clerk : annamarie marchetti and she set the attys and board in motion. The day before she told me I couldn't speak at the meeting either.

    Please enter cindy cook ri in google or youtube and you will see videos of the beginning of the meeting where they violate my rights and then the audio I received from the town they made at the meeting. Plus the conditions of the cottage we rent that has numerous code violations. Worst matter is bathroom toilet floods from connector hose and underneath,floor soaked rotted,no seal causing it to move around the floor and it cannot flush. It goes to a 200 gal cesspool and the pipes are broken causing the toilet paper to get caught on them . We have to place a plastic bag across the toilet seat down go then empty it into a barrel through the window. Mayor scott avedisian ,blg dept al decorte are fully aware of this and haven't had it repaired. Alfred esposito, 83yrs old,a vet in his fla condo [not hosp] is listed as owner but his niece cindy r cook and her husband barry cook really are the owners. Uncle esposito let them put it in his name in 2003 whereas they filed bankruptcy in 2000 etc and couldn't put it in their names. Barry and cindy had a real estate business he was on east providence housing board,councilman , vp citizens bank 17yrs so the know they should never of rented this uninhabitable property especially to an elderly disabled senior and her caregiver. The water bill hasn't been paid since 2009 $2,100 , lien whereas uncle esposito co-sign for niece cindy's business which failed and they haven't paid rent on this leased land for several mos.Moved in oct & gave them $2,250.The links to the RI ACLU Stephen Brown's letters and town atty.http://tinyurl.com/q7furx3

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