The winner of tonight's showdown receives the grand prize -- a berth in this weekend's title series at Providence College's Schneider Arena.

"The boys played awesome," said SRA coach Mark Anderson. "We're playing the best hockey we could play right now and we don't want to stop here. We want to go to Providence."

The last time a sixth seed reached the finals was four seasons ago, when Moses Brown swept second-seeded Burrillville High in the finals to claim the then-called Met B championship. But that was when eight teams, not six, qualified for the postseason, and never in recent memory has a bottom seed made the grade for PC.

Two seasons ago, Lincoln enjoyed a Cinderella run of its own in the Division 1-A tourney. The No. 4 seed in the fifth-seed field with a 6-10-2 record, the Lions stopped fifth-seeded East Greenwich in the quarterfinals before upsetting top-seeded Cranston West in the semifinals and third-seeded Moses Brown in the finals. All three series went three games.

Leading the Saints' assault on Saturday was high-scoring center Andrew Bettencourt, who at the start of the day, didn't think he was going to be playing. Bettencourt, who was scoreless in Friday's defeat, still made the state sheet when he was whistled for three penalties and a misconduct, and in seasons past, four penalties meant that a player would have to sit out the next game.

Portsmouth fans were overjoyed and SRA fans were glum at the news of Bettencourt's four penalties, and Anderson also thought he had lost his talented junior for the next game and vowed in his post-game remarks that his team wouldn't give up the fight and continue to soldier on without him.

But when George Egan, the RIIL's Director of Hockey, read about the game and Anderson's remarks in a local paper, he informed Anderson that morning about a new rule this winter (Article 22, Section G) that gives any player receiving three penalties of any type an automatic misconduct and an early exit from that game -- but the green light to play in their next contest.

"I could have sworn that they had the four penalty rule still in effect," admitted Anderson. "But the director gave us a call when he saw it in the paper, and (having Andrew back) was certainly a bonus for us."

Bettencourt scored a pair of unassisted goals (his 35th and 36th goals of the season) and added an assist as the Saints quickly took the wind out of the Patriots' sails by scoring on two of their first four shots of the contest. Bettencourt found the back of the net on the first shot 1:20 into the game, and classmate Drew Given lit the lamp on the fourth shot at 3:12 by flipping in an assist from Bettencourt.

"We jumped on them right away and made them use their time-out right away," added Anderson. "Any time you can get a team to use their time-out that early in the game is huge because you take that advantage away from them toward the end of the game."

Ironically, Bettencourt's other goal also came on the first shot of the middle period (just 20 seconds into play), and senior Ethan Cooper made it a 4-0 contest at the nine-minute mark by netting his second goal in as many nights with help from assists by Tyler Malo and Matt Tougas.

SRA sophomore netminder Joe Mello, who lost his shutout bid 2:46 into the final period, ended the contest with 23 saves as the Saints outshot the Patriots and Conklin by a 32-24 margin. Conklin had ruled the Saints during the regular season (4-3 and 6-1 victories) by stopping 63 of the 67 shots he faced and had 34 saves in the Patriots' win on Friday.

Last night's game took place in one of the biggest crowds of the season for an SRA hockey game, and it reminded a lot of players and coaches of the large gatherings that filled the arenas last March to watch the Saints work their way to the Division 3 championship series, which they lost to North Kingstown.

"This is really great for the school," admitted Anderson. "They're coming off a Super Bowl championship, so were kind of carrying some of that momentum as well. Our fans have been awesome and supportive, and hopefully, they'll come down to Portsmouth and see us on Monday."