The defending Division III hockey champion Pilgrim Patriots surrendered a 3-0 first period lead in their season opener and fell 6-5 in overtime to the West Warwick/ Exeter-West Greenwich Knights on Friday night at Thayer Arena.

Knights junior Kyle Nicolas scored the game-winning goal, 1:43 into the overtime. The tally was unassisted.

Pilgrim head coach Mike Boyajian Jr. felt his team let up on its opponent after the first frame.

“They took the pedal off the metal and let ‘em right back in,” Boyajian said. “And, you give a team like that a second chance and they're going to take it.”

Pilgrim got the first goal of the contest at 8:48 of the first period when forward Daniel DeRobbio lit the lamp after assists from AJ Sherlock and Dylan Gallagher.

Ten seconds later, the Pats padded their lead when defenseman James Cook buried a deep slap shot into the back of the net after an assist from forward Sean Noel.

With 3.2 seconds left in the opening period, Pilgrim took a 3-0 advantage when Chris Quirk fired a wrister past Knights freshman goaltender Kevin Macdonald behind assists from Sherlock and Gallagher.

The Knights got on the board 1:15 into the second period when junior Jake Hernandez slipped the puck past Pilgrim freshman goaltender Dylan Cunetta and pulled West Warwick within two at 3-1.

Then, with 6:41 remaining in the period, Pilgrim went up 4-1 when defenseman Will Morissette passed ahead to Noel, who skated down on a breakaway and snuck a short-handed tally past Macdonald.

Thirty-three seconds later, West Warwick cut the deficit to two when Ethan Jedson scored a power-play goal after assists from Egan Usler and Alex Jedson.

Four minutes after that, the Knights got within 4-3 when Ethan Jedson scored behind assists from Hernandez and Ethan Laramee.

The Knights then knotted the game at 4 when Hernandez intercepted the puck in the Pilgrim zone and fired it past Cunetta, 5:30 into the third frame.

Sherlock put the Pats up 5-4 with 7:57 remaining in regulation, when the 6-foot-2 junior forward rifled in a shot from in front after assists from Collin Driscoll and Zach Sayles.

However, with 3:30 remaining, West Warwick defenseman Nick Sernberger tied the game at 5 and forced overtime. The assists on that tally came from Hernandez and Ethan Laramee.

Then at 1:43 of the overtime period, Nicolas netted the game-winner for West Warwick.

Pilgrim outshot the Knights 41 to 18 during the contest. Cunetta stopped 12 of those shots in his first high school start.

“He’s a young kid,” Boyajian said. “He’s a rookie. He’s going to make his mistakes and he’s going to have his growing pains and we’re going to have to play well behind him and that’s really all we can do.”

Pilgrim played well to begin the contest and Boyajian hopes his team can keep the pressure up for a full game its next time out when it travels to Smithfield Municipal Ice Rink later this week to face Johnston/North Providence.

“It was more intensity than anything else, so just maintaining effort for 45 minutes is what we’re really looking for,” Boyajian said. “So that’s what we have to do next time out. So next Friday, hopefully we have a better showing for 45 minutes.”