Both squads eventually finished the game with a grand total of 35 penalties (including two misconducts and a game misconduct for the Avengers) for 93 minutes, making it a very long afternoon for everyone in attendance.
“I thought it was a fairly evenly-played game from a physical perspective, and the refs, to their credit, were trying to control the game and not let it get out of hand,” said Lincoln coach Denis Riel, whose squad is back at .500 at 4-4-1. “But a number of penalties I thought were grossly non-reflective of the quality of play -- the hookings, the cross-checkings -- (that) in another day, another arena, (the refs) might have let go.”
The one penalty that hurt the Lions the most was the game misconduct to sophomore standout Ryan O’Dell, who was involved in a skirmish with EG defenseman Mike Swift in front of the Avengers’ net, and along with Swift, got the boot for taunting and will serve a one-game suspension.
“(O’Dell) catches a beating in front of the net, does everything he can to turn off and get out of there, and gets thrown out of the game,” added Riel. “That’s going to hurt us when we play Cranston West (on Friday) because he’s our sparkplug out there.”
Lost in the hoopla of the swarm of penalties was the excellent performance by Duquette, who played with a heavy heart because his aunt passed away earlier in the day. The senior captain netted the Lions’ first three scores and currently leads all Division I-A scorers in goals (12) and points (18).
“He’s having a great season,” admitted Riel. “He played under some pretty terrible conditions today. He was pretty much down, but he still came back to play and I thought he played a very good game.”
Duquette wasted no time in getting the Lions on the board as he slipped two of his team’s first four shots into the back of the goal in the opening 2:15 of play, forcing Avenger goalie Nolan Peduto to surprisingly pull himself from the game.
The Avengers, who fell to 1-6 and came into the contest with a division-low eight goals, managed to cut their deficit in half with a power-play goal with 1:02 to go in the period. After Duquette wrapped up his hat trick 2:50 into the second period with an unassisted goal, the Avengers came back with the next two goals at 3:14 and 6:50 to tie the score.
But the momentum was shortlived. Sixty-three seconds later, Ryan McVeigh gave the Lions back their lead, and 50 seconds after that goal, Ryan Martins made it a 5-3 game with his fourth goal of the season.
Tim Hervieux’s power-play goal with 3:10 to go in the period extended the Lions’ lead to three, and after Sam Rotundo netted a power-play goal for his third score of the day for the Avengers 4:14 into the last period, Murray iced the contest with his two goals in the final 2:58 of the game.
The Avengers’ other goal came with 22 seconds to play in the contest when they tallied their third power-play goal of the afternoon. It was also the fifth of the game by both teams, who didn’t end up with any shorthanded scores.
“Overall, 5-on-5, and the power play, I thought the kids played very well,” admitted Riel. “Despite some adversity with the penalties, they kept their spirits up and they continued to press the play. If there’s a positive to take away from this, I thought we were very aggressive in the penalty kill, and I’m a little surprised we didn’t score a shorthanded goal because we did a great job attacking the penalty kill.”
The win helps the Lions move to within two points of first-place Burrillville High (5-3-1) in the standings and a point ahead of third-place Cranston West (3-3-2), which will host the Lions on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Thayer Arena.
Fans hoping to catch a rematch between the Lions and Avengers won’t have to wait long, because on Saturday at 7, they will renew acquaintances at the West Warwick Civic Center.
“It’s a win, it’s certainly not a great win, but we’ll take it,” added Riel. “The division’s going to be tight this year, and it’s better to grab two points today than one or none.”
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