By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

St. Raphael Academy enjoyed one of its best weekends of the season. Tolman High and Ponaganset High did not.

As a result, the Saints, thanks to Saturday night's convincing 9-0 victory over the Chieftains and Friday's 9-3 rout of winless Pilgrim High, have moved into a three-way tie for fifth place in the Division 2 ranks with the Tigers and Chieftains.
Whoever finishes the season in the top six in the standings will earn berths in next month's Division 2 playoffs, and the Saints couldn't have picked a better time to play some of their finest hockey. They have won four of their last five games to raise their record to 6-5-0-1 with four games left in their regular season. Only one is against a team with a losing record (on Saturday night against Coventry High), and awaiting the Saints are difficult tests against first-place North Kingstown High, the Tigers, and third-place Portsmouth High.
"We're really starting to gel as a team," added first-year SRA coach Mark Anderson, whose Saints are in their first season in the division after reaching the Division 3 finals last season. "We're playing the way we're capable of playing and proving that we belong in Division 2."
And speaking of the Patriots, they moved back into a tie for third place with Snithfield High and handed the Tigers their second defeat of the weekend on Saturday night at Portsmouth Abbey's rink, as their four-goal barrage in the second period propelled them to a 7-2 victory. The Tigers were less than 24 hours removed from a 4-3 loss to the Sentinels (a game that saw them watch a 3-0 lead slip away) and fell to 6-5-0-1.
The Chieftains, who also lost a Friday night duel with second-place Cumberland High, dipped to 6-7-1 and have just two regular-season games left -- both against two of the division's top four teams. Next weekend is a bye week for the Chieftains, but the following week, they will contest the Sentinels and the Patriots.
Unlike the Saints and Chieftains, the Tigers have the easiest path to the playoffs. Of their last four contests, they will play two of the bottom three teams in the 10-team standings (Pilgrim this weekend and Coventry in their regular-season finale), but in between those games is an action-packed weekend that features contests against the Saints and the Clippers.
"I think two wins will get us back into the playoffs," said Tolman coach Tom Vecoli, "but we still have our work cut out for us."
Andrew Bettencourt, who scored three goals in the Saints' victory over Pilgrim, netted five against the Chieftains to increase his seasonal goal total to 28. He had a natural hat trick by netting SRA's first three goals, the last two shorthanded.
The Saints, who unleashed 50 shots on net and netted five of their goals in the middle period, also received a goal and three assists from Matt Tougas and second-period goals from Drew Given, Dom Disano, and Jeremy Jerauld.
SRA netminder Joe Mello Jr. turned away all 23 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season.       
North Kingstown, meanwhile, tightened its grasp on the top spot in the standings by notching a 7-2 win over the Sentinels at the Smithfield Ice Rink. The Skippers, who are also in their first season in the Division 2 ranks after beating the Saints in the Division 3 finals last winter, are 12-1-1 and four points ahead of the Clippers, who are 10-2-1. The Sentinels are 9-2-1-1 and the Patriots are 9-2-1 sit just a point behind the Clippers.
Matt Chappell's hat trick and Luke Peckham's five assists led the Patriots' assault in their win over the Tigers, who received both of their scores from Ross Leclaire. The Tigers, who took a season-low 16 shots in their loss to Smithfield, took just 22 at Portsmouth goalie Tom Conklin, but it was Tolman's poor defensive play that caught Vecoli's attention.
"We're not playing good defense right now," added Vecoli. "We just did a bad job with our defensive coverage, and that's something we're going to have to work on in practice."   
Greg Fallon, NK's top scorer this season (19 goals, 24 assists), scored a pair of goals and set up four others to lead the Skippers past the Sentinels in their affair.
The Skippers, who took 43 shots on net, owned a 3-0 lead at the end of two periods before Cody Lang scored his 13th goal of the season for the Sentinels 3:25 into the final period. Coby Fugere's team-leading 16th goal of the year with 5 1/2 minutes to play in the game cut Smithfield's deficit to 4-2, but the Skippers netted three goals in the final 4 1/2 minutes (the first two by Fallon) to seal the verdict.
At Levy Arena, Burrillville High continued its winning ways in the Division 1-A ranks, but needed Brandon Steere's first goal of the season with 3:20 to play in the game to eke out a 3-2 victory over Cranston West High.
The victory was the sixth in a row for the first-place Broncos (11-3), with four of them being one-goal verdicts.
The Broncos, thanks to goals by Jeff San Antonio and Cam Leduc, owned a 2-1 lead after a period of play, but the visiting Falcons knotted the score on Michael Almberg's second goal of the contest with 39 seconds left in the second period.
Lincoln High was also a Division 1-A winner on Saturday night, as the Lions defeated East Greenwich High, 7-2. The Lions are now 3-10, and in all three of their victories, they have netted seven goals.
In a Division 3 crossover game at Adelard Arena, Brian Fay netted the first two goals of the game and Mario Marzialle stopped all 23 shots he faced for Cranston East High in the visiting Thunderbolts' 4-0 shutout of Woonsocket High.
The defeat drops the Novans' record to 5-7-1 and puts them two points behind the eighth-best record in the division, with the top eight teams grabbing playoff berths. They wrap up their regular season with games against South Kingstown, Mount Hope, and Scituate High, and all three teams own winning records. 
***
St. Raphael  2 - 5 - 2 -- 9
Ponaganset  0 - 0 - 0 -- 0
First period: SRA -- Andrew Bettencourt (unassisted), 4:25; SRA -- Andrew Bettencourt (Dom Disano), shorthanded, 8:30.
Second period: SRA -- Andrew Bettencourt (Matt Tougas), shorthanded, 1:52; SRA -- Drew Given (unassisted), 4:22; SRA -- Dom Disano (Andrew Bettencourt, Matt Tougas), 6:23; SRA -- Jeremy Jerauld (Josh Gorton), 9:11; SRA -- Matt Tougas (Josh Gorton), 9:42.
Third period: SRA -- Andrew Bettencourt (unassisted), shorthanded, 2:15; SRA -- Andrew Bettencourt (Drew Given, Matt Tougas), 7:26.
Shots on goal: St. Raphael 50, Ponaganset 23. Goalie saves: SRA -- Joe Mello Jr. (23 saves). 

Tolman    0 - 2 - 0 -- 2
Portsmouth  1 - 4 - 2 -- 7
First period: P -- Justin Cole (Luke Peckham), 7:13.
Second period: P -- Adam Rucando (Luke Peckham), 4:41, T -- Ross Leclaire (Wesley McVay), 7:29; P -- Matt Chappell (Dylan Mello), 9:53; P -- Aaron Towers (Ben Peckham), 11:02; T -- Ross Leclaire (Kyle Joyce), power play, 13:23; P -- Matt Chappell (Luke Peckham, Dylan Mello), 13:41.
Third period: P -- Adam Rucando (Justin Cole, Luke Peckham), 2:07; P -- Matt Chappell (Tod Camara, Nick Juselis), 6:27.
Shots on goal: Tolman 22, Portsmouth 32. Goalie saves: T -- Ari Vieira, 15; P -- Tom Conklin, 20.

North Kingstown  2 - 1 - 4 -- 7
Smithfield  0 - 0 - 2 -- 2 
First period: NK -- Nick Delfino (Greg Fallon), power play, 14:41; NK -- Dom Carnevale (Brett Zimmerman, Greg Fallon), 14:59.
Second period: NK -- Kyle Theriault (Sean Reed, Brett Zimmerman), 9:37.
Third period: S -- Cody Lang (Joseph Gonsalves, Vincent Tudino), 3:25. NK -- Sean Reed (Shawn Henderson, Greg Fallon), 6:41. S -- Colby Fugere (unassisted), 9:36. NK -- Greg Fallon (Brett Zimmerman), shorthanded, 10:36; NK -- Greg Fallon (Brett Zimmerman), 11:24; NK -- Dave Dilustro (Greg Fallon), 14:38.
Shots on goal: North Kingstown 43, Smithfield 32. Goalie saves: NK -- Mike Apt, 30; S -- Vincent Tudino, 36.

Cranston West  1 - 1 - 0 -- 2
Burrillville  2 - 0 - 1 -- 3
First period: B -- Jeff San Antonio (Doug Clarke, Tim L'Esperence), 6:29. CW -- Michael Almberg (Nicholas Delumba, Philip Doucett), power play, 8:15. B -- Cam Leduc (Craig Koprusak, Kyle Keegan), 12:27.
Second period: CW -- Michael Almberg (Michael Tomasselli), 14:21.
Third period: B -- Brandon Steere (Tim Lesperence), 11:40.
Shots on goal: Cranston West 31, Burrillville 30. Goalie saves: B -- John Henault, 29; CW -- Jared Dauphinais, 27.

Cranston East   1 - 1 - 1 -- 3
Woonsocket  0 - 0 - 0 -- 0
First period: CE -- Brian Fay (Justin DiMaio), 5:55.
Second period: CE -- Fay (DiMaio, Michael Aguirre), 6:12, CE -- John Healy (Fay, Aguirre), 10:16.
Third period: CE -- Aguirre (Healy, Fay), 1:50.
Shots on goal: Cranston East 23, Woonsocket 23. Goalie saves: CE -- Mario Marzialle, 23; W -- Josh Sloan, 19.