Hockey Makes Quick Work of Cranston West, 7-0

From pretty much the drop of the puck last night at Thayer Arena, there was no doubt which team was coming out of the building with the "W".

Although the Hawks didn't net their first goal until nearly seven full minutes into the first period (off Pat Creamer's stick, a goal that can be seen here:),

there were two things that were clear, both more than likely courtesy of Coach Creamer: first, as a result of last Saturday night's performance against LaSalle (4-1 loss that probably wasn't even as close as that score indicates), our guys controlled and dictated the play for the entire game, keeping their collective foot on the gas pedal until the final buzzer; second, as our Network announcers pointed out for much of the game, Coach Creamer was clearly mixing and matching his first, second, and third lines, no doubt to see what combinations truly work and, probably, to send a message that no one's job is safe.

Last night's game was broadcast live right here on The Network, with Remy Morris and Cam Brennan doing their usual first-rate work on play-by-play and analysis (Ben Macksoud filled in behind the mic during the first period, and handled the majority of the camera work for the rest of the game), and Darren Squillace perched himself at ice-level to grab highlights.

Once the Hawks had their first goal, it was pretty much off to the races. The puck was consistently in West's zone throughout the game, resulting in our netminders, Matt Kenneally and Cameron Doomany, having to turn away a total of nine West shots on net. Towards the end of the contest, this had become a pretty familiar sight in two different ways - this was the sixth Hawks' goal, and it was Reilly Miller's third, giving him a hat trick for the evening:

Alex Leite closed out the scoring with a shorthanded, unassisted goal.

The next one for the hockey Hawks is a big one, as the defending state champions, Mt. St. Charles, comes into Thayer for an all-important early-season shakedown. Game time is 6:30 pm, and The Network will have it live, right here.