Mt. Hope Co-Op Girls Hockey Defeats Cranston, 2-0

Persistence paid off in the third period for the Barrington/Mt. Hope/Portsmouth Co-operative girls’ ice hockey team Wednesday night at the Hunt Family Hockey Arena on the campus of Portsmouth Abbey School.

After being thwarted for two periods, the Barrington/Mt. Hope/Portsmouth team, also referred to as the Eagles, broke through twice in the closing 12 minutes of action and defeated the Cranston Co-operative team, 2-0, in a key DeCosta Division game.

Kelly Kraunelis netted a goal and an assist, Meghan Miller scored the other goal, and netminder Sophie Faxon kicked out 14 shots as BMP moved into sole possession of first place in the divisional standings with a 3-1 record. Despite receiving a stellar performance in goal from Abbey Torres (25 saves), the Thunderbirds slipped to 2-2.

Kraunelis snapped a scoreless draw with 8:35 left in the contest on a feed from Chelsea Larisa and Miller added a quasi-open net tally from Kraunelis with 52 seconds remaining as the Eagles claimed their second straight victory in the young season.

“Cranston’s goalie is really strong and we knew we would have to keep going at her tonight,” said BMP Coach Deneen Stebenne. “When we came out in the third period, I told our kids to gain the blue line, throw everything on net and try to crash the net.”

And the strategy paid off. After Torres stoned solid scoring bids by Miller and Danielle Makucevich early in the final session, Kraunelis redirected a pass from Larisa behind the net over Torres’ right shoulder and into the net for the first goal.

The Eagles kept the Thunderbirds pinned in their defensive zone for most of the remainder of the game, although BMP was twice whistled for penalties in the final six minutes of action. Cranston had no serious threats during the first infraction and BMP took advantage of a mistake to net its insurance score.

With the Eagles a skater short and Torres heading to the bench for an extra skater, Kraunelis picked off an errant pass and fed Miller for an easy score as Torres vainly hustled back just late into the play.

The Thunderbirds, however, never quit and Faxon was forced to make challenging saves on Allie Smedberg and Tori Adams in the dying seconds to preserve her first shutout of the season.

“Sophie played a really strong game tonight,” Stebenne said. “Overall, I think we played well tonight and we’ve come a long way from where we started in November.”

Cranston Coach Ashley Pagliarini said she was not disappointed in her team’s performance.

“We held them scoreless for two periods, then they capitalized on a play where we broke down a little in the defensive zone in the third period,” Pagliarini said. “Then they scored an empty-net goal. Overall, it was a back-and-forth game and both teams had chances.”

BMP out-shot Cranston by a 9-5 margin in the opening period and the Thunderbirds killed off a penalty as Torres stopped bids by Larisa, Kraunelis, Miller and Grace McGarty. Cranston regrouped in the second chapter and controlled play most of the way behind Smedberg, Adams, Olivia DeSpirito and Emily Ferguson, but Faxon was impervious in goal, stopping Ferguson on a breakaway.

Late in the second session, BMP reasserted its dominance, ultimately out-shooting the Thunderbirds by an 8-6 differential in the period, and peppered Torres with shots by Kraunelis, Larisa and Miller, but the Cranston netminder blocked all to sustain the scoreless stalemate entering the final chapter.

Barrington returns to action Friday at 8:30 p.m. against Smithfield High at the Smithfield Municipal Arena, while Cranston is idle until Dec. 30 when it faces Toll Gate/Warwick Vets/Pilgrim Co-operative at the Thayer Ice Arena in Warwick at 7:30 p.m.

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