The defending champion Bishop Hendricken hockey team would complete a late comeback to beat crosstown foe Pilgrim 5-2 last Friday night at Thayer.
Trailing 2-1 heading into the third period, the Hawks would catch fire as senior captain Griffin Crain scored three straight goals to put Hendricken up 4-2. Jack LaRose put away an empty netter in the final minute to set the score to 5-2 and secure the win.
Pilgrim was sharp in the opening period and would take a 2-1 advantage. Aidan McNally got the Pats on the board just 2:31 into play, but Nate Marshall scored for Hendricken to knot things up.
Richie Cavanagh would break away and give Pilgrim its second goal with just one second remaining in the period to make it 2-1, Pilgrim.
After a scoreless second period, Crain and the Hawks felt urgency heading into the final 15 minutes.
“We were fired up in the locker room, we knew we weren’t playing our best so it all came together,” said Crain, who was happy to get a win over the Pats, who beat them in the regular season and played them in a tight thriller in last year’s semifinals. “It’s always a battle when we face them, it’s always tight. We just had to keep going hard, you never know when [Pilgrim goalie Braxton Bragg] is going to come up with a stop and win the game for them. We knew that we would have to just keep going after him to hopefully get one in.”
It was a big win for the Hawks as they were coming off their first defeat of the season against Prout in the previous contest. Although Crain was happy with the team’s response, he was not too worried about the loss.
“It happens every year, we just need to keep the train going. We are worried about where we are going to be in March. That’s not to say that these games aren’t important, but we know that we just need to work hard every day,” Crain said.
Pilgrim coach Mike Boyajian felt that the Pats had tired legs down the stretch and committed just a few too many errors, including an interference call which set up a Hendricken power-play on the go-ahead goal.
“[Hendricken is] a big, physical team. We just made a few mistakes in the third and they capitalized on those. Crain scored on that penalty and it was a whole different game, we started playing on our heels a little bit. I think we ran out of gas,” said Boyajian.
Boyajian has been pleased with the team’s commitment despite a tough start this season. Before the Hendricken loss, all of Pilgrim’s defeats were by one goal.
“The kids are working hard, we just made a few too many mistakes in our end. We’ll have to clean that up and that’s what we’ll work on. We have a couple of talented players that are injured so we have also been working through that, so it’s going to be next guy up. We have some time left in the regular season so we just need to take care of business,” Boyajian.
Pilgrim did respond well against North Kingstown the following game when it rolled to a 7-1 victory. Barlow finished with three goals while Jack Sayler added a pair of scores. Andrew Mullaney and Jackson Bromage also lit the lamp for the Pats while Bragg stopped 16 of 17 shots faced.