What's it like playing with a target on your back? SCMB is doing just fine finding out

SMITHFIELD — After winning the state title last winter, the Smithfield/Coventry/Moses Brown (SCMB) girls hockey team knew it was going to have a target on its back this season.

On Friday, that target got a lot bigger.

The Sentinels title defense started in December, but the season really started on Friday when they hosted La Salle in a rematch of last year’s state title game. SCMB made sure the teams’ first meeting of the season didn’t have the drama of the last meeting, scoring two goals in the first period and finishing with a good, physical third period to pick up a 3-1 win and confirm that the road to the state title goes through Smithfield.

“It does feel really good,” All-Stater Keira Goffe said. “We put every second of our energy into that game and I think we really deserved to win that game.”

“It was a tough championship game last year and we managed to get the win in double overtime,” said Kaylin O’Connor, who comes from the Smithfield portion of the co-op with Coventry and Moses Brown. “Just to start off our season, first time playing them and get the win, it just felt great.”

After winning titles the last two seasons — SCMB won the Division II crown in 2021-22 — and returning its core group to the ice this winter, confidence was high when this season started.

In the first game of the season, the Sentinels got a quick wakeup call that showed them exactly how big the target on their back was. South County — a semifinalist last winter — played tough, didn’t play scared and forced SCMB to grind out a 3-3 tie.

Since then, the play has picked up. The Sentinels won a nonleague game after the tie and closed 2023 with league wins over Warwick and Mount St. Charles.

SCMB came into Friday locked in and it showed early. The Sentinels controlled the puck and had La Salle scrambling. O’Connor scored 4:38 into the game off an assist from Goffe and that set the tone they were looking for.

“Starting off strong is a big help at the beginning of the game,” O’Connor said. “A lot of teams get tired toward the end in the third period. Once you’re slow in the third period you wish you had those legs in the first and second to get the goals and set the pace of the game.”

The pace was certainly set in a way SCMB wanted because four minutes later, sophomore Ava Lourenco — from Moses Brown — scored on an assist from sophomore Ava Pereira and freshman Margaret Baldwin.

While juniors Goffe, O’Connor and goalie Ava Porter are three of the best in the state at their respective positions, the Sentinels are loaded with young talent. Many of the sophomores who took the ice — like Lourenco, Lila Stilley and Goose Brousseau — were key contributors last season and Pereira and Baldwin were big on Friday, but all looked like a group of seniors who had been playing together for four years.

“When new players come in, you have to build that chemistry, but honestly it’s not that hard,” Goffe said. “With these freshmen, we all work together really well. It’s chemistry that sets us apart from the other teams and I think always having each other’s backs, always supporting each other and always cheering each other on really gets us through the game.”

“We just keep building that chemistry every year,” O’Connor said. “We have a good freshman class come in the past two years and we all just work together and the chemistry builds as the season goes on.”

SCMB knew La Salle wasn’t going away easy on Friday. The Rams battled tough in the second period and while they couldn’t convert on a power-play opportunity with five minutes left before intermission, Eliza Barker managed to find the back of the net with 1:33 left to cut the deficit in half heading to the break.

Instead of panicking about their lead getting cut in half, the Sentinels refocused in the locker room and came out playing the way they did in the first period. Suzanne LaFlamme scored 4:25 into the third and gave SCMB the breathing room it needed.

“Toward the end of the second we got kind of sloppy, we got kind of tired,” Goffe said. “I think we laid back a little after the first two goals and that other goal was an awakening.

“Back in the locker room our coaches reminded us that we have to keep the same mentality and the way we played in the beginning of the game and just keep that up because we knew they were going to lock in strong.”

Penalties became a big part of the third. The Rams were hit with three, SCMB with two but neither team was able to take advantage on the power play.

Both teams also played aggressive hockey. There’s no hitting in the girls game, but things got chippy in front of the net. La Salle had the size advantage, but SCMB wasn’t backing down from the challenge.

“If they’re going to be physical with us, we might as well get chippy with them,” O’Connor said. “Not in a way that we want to retaliate and get penalties called, but we want to show them that we have the same strength they do and we’re not going to take any of it.”

The loss was the first of the season for La Salle, which may receive the same wakeup call SCMB did after its season-opening draw.

But for the defending state champs, Friday’s game adds confidence. They know they’re going to get the best every team has to offer, but now they’re more mentally prepared with how to deal with it.

“We know we’re still going to have a target on our back and we know we’re still going to play teams like La Salle again,” O’Connor said. “We just have to keep playing with the same grit and determination and competition and keep trying to win all the games we can.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: SCMB girls hockey team beats La Salle in rematch of state title game