Portsmouth High School Hockey Loses 4-2 to Coventry in Game 1 of State Finals

Connor DiPietro scored twice in the final period to lift Coventry past Portsmouth, 4-2, in the opening game of the RIIL Division Three State championship finals at Schneider Arena on Wednesday night.

DiPietro scored the clincher on a set-up by teammates Nick Paiva and Zach Levesque. “We work on that all the time in practice,” said DiPietro in a play started by a Paiva pass from the top of the circle to Levesque, who shot the puck from the right. DiPietro pounced on the rebound and tipped it in for the go-ahead goal. “The timing was perfect,” said DiPietro.

DiPietro iced the outcome completely with his final goal with a little more than a minute to go, aided by another assist by Levesque.

Portsmouth, 2010 Division Two state champion, was outshot 10-1, in the first period. They escaped with a scoreless deadlock after the first 15 minutes, helped by seven saves by Patriots goalie Matt Maggiacomo on an Oakers power play.

 “The goaltending was all right,” said Patriots head coach Mike Monahan of his netminder. “He stood his ground.”

The Patriots had withstood what Oakers head coach Ken Bird described as excellent play by his club to start the game. “We were almost flawless and executed almost everything we practiced the first two periods except for the major penalty in the second period.”

Pesola opened up the scoring early in the second period, thanks to work by Peter Stringfellow who maneuvered into shooting position for a shot attempt 10 feet inside the blue line, and Conner Forsythe who took a few stabs before Pesola finally backhanded the puck into net.

The Patriots got the boost they needed three minutes into period two on a major boarding call against Forsythe. Intense pressure finally produced the first Patriots goal, unassisted by Matt Abraham.

Less than a minute later and still with the major penalty in effect, on a Coventry 2-on -1 breakout on the left and skating in tandem, Corey Rogers passed to Pesola who blasted in a shot from 15 feet out for a stunning short-hander. 

Aaron Towers tied the game four minutes later when he zipped in a shot from 15 feet on an assist by Mike Maggiacomo.

But the Patriots, despite outshooting their rivals, 8-3, in the second period and 9-5 in the second period, still could not get the puck past Oakers goalie Spencer Patti.

“Spencer was fantastic and stood on his head the last periods,” said coach Bird.

“I am proudest of what we did to kill off the penalties,” said Oakers defenseman Alex Zanella of the work the defense had to do to kill off so many penalties, seven with 17 minutes total, uncharacteristically high.

It wasn’t easy for the Oakers to withstand the buzz-around play of Towers and Abraham, in particular. By the time the game ended the official shot record was in favor of Coventry 22-18, but had been outdueled in the last period and a half.

Portsmouth head coach Mike Monahan said the slow start might have been due to nerves or inexperience. "We had our opportunities. But I want this to hurt really bad for a while. They have to realize that many teams may never have the chance to win a championship in their lives. But we usually respond well after a loss and the beauty of this is that it is a two-of-three series.”

Coventry will try to capture its first state title since the 2002-03 season when the two teams resume their best two-of-three series on Saturday, March 19, at 3 p.m. at Schneider Arena.

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