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By TERRY NAU Sports editor WOONSOCKET – There’s nothing wrong with sports that a good dynasty can’t fix. The NBA seems to grab the most attention when the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers are in top form. Hockey purists can either love them or hate them but the NHL is always more interesting when the Montreal Canadiens are in the running for a Stanley Cup.
And it’s very good for Rhode Island high school hockey when Mount St. Charles Academy is taking care of all opponents, both near and far.
You remember the Mounties. The school that brought national acclaim to the Ocean State when it won 26 consecutive state titles between 1978-2003, sending numerous players to the NHL during those years, beginning with Brian Lawton, Keith Carney, Garth Snow and Mathieu Schneider, to name just a few of the trailblazers.
Mount captured its first state title in five years last March and is showing signs of becoming a dominant regional and perhaps national power with its 7-0 start to the current campaign, including the MSC Holiday Tip-Off tourney title it claimed this past Wednesday afternoon with a thrilling 3-2 victory over LaSalle College High, a national power its own right that had won the tourney the previous year.
Mount coaches Bill and Dave Belisle are setting the bar high for their team this season with a difficult non-league schedule that began with last week’s tourney against some of the best teams from Pennsylvania up through New England, and then with a trip to Minnesota in two weeks for a pair of games against strong high school teams from that hockey-crazy state.
“We’ll be playing Holy Angels in our first game,” Dave Belisle said on Saturday before sending the Mounties out for a practice skate at Adelard Arena. “Our second game will be against Shattuck/St. Mary’s. The last time we went out there to play, about six years ago, Shattuck had a kid named (Sidney) Crosby on its team.”
Playing outside competition is very important to Bill and Dave Belisle. And when they go outside Rhode Island, distance is not an issue. It’s about the quality of competition, exposure to another style of hockey, and the chance for their players to enhance their games by competing against strong teams from another region of the country.
“It is very important to our kids,” Belisle said. “We showed at our own tournament that we can play at a very high level against good teams from outside the region. Now we get to take our game to Minnesota. This will be a big pick-me-up for the players. We’re still looking for our identity as a team and this is a good way to find it.”
When asked to describe the current Mount St. Charles squad, Dave Belisle keeps coming back to one word.
“Balance,” he said. “We can skate three lines and get good production from each line. Maybe this team doesn’t have that one big line that can score a lot of goals but I almost prefer it this way. We had good balanced scoring in the tournament. If you look at our statistics, we don’t have any scorers in the top 10 (in the state) but we have several in the top 20.”
Second line center Alex Erban has scored five goals in Mount’s four R.I. Division I games, which the Mounties have won while scoring 32 goals against just two allowed. But Erban is the No. 2 center behind Evan Hoffman, who keys the No. 1 line anchored by wingers Trevor Plante and Kyle Beauchamp. Plante is a sophomore, Hoffman’s a junior and Beauchamp, who scored the game-winner in overtime against LaSalle College High, is a senior captain.
Erban’s wingers are Tim Doyle and Tim Coffey. The third line features a youthful trio of sophomores Zach Samborsky and Mike Magerman along with freshman Brian Campbell.
The defense is led by goaltender Jason SanAntonio, whose play this season has drawn nothing but superlatives from the Belisles. The senior gets a lot of help in front of the net from defensemen Shane Dunphy, John Lace, Dustin Picard, James Golden, Nick Bennett and Scott Carter.
“We really are a young team,” Dave Belisle conceded. “We do have several experienced players who can lead us, and that is huge.”
Seniors like Beauchamp, SanAntonio and Picard lend strong character and leadership skills to the Mounties, standing tall in close games like the one the Mounties played in the tournament final. This form of leadership is something that has distinguished Bill Belisle’s Mount teams from the beginning of the dynasty more than three decades ago.
“We have two former players who are now general managers of National Hockey League teams,” Dave Belisle said, speaking about Brian Lawton (Tampa Bay GM) and Garth Snow (N.Y. Islanders GM). “Previously, Mount had been known for producing NHL players but now we have these two management individuals.
“It just goes to show the tutoring that Coach (Bill) Belisle has given them has paid off. Coach’s lessons apply on the ice and off. We’re also fortunate that Mount St. Charles Academy is a high quality school, both academically and athletically. Brian and Garth took all they could from their experience at Mount and applied it to what they are doing right now.”
Lawton, who grew up in Cumberland, and Wrentham (Mass.) native Snow stay in touch with their former coach.
“They both still have family in the area,” Dave Belisle said. “We either hear from the families or sometimes from Brian and Garth. They stay in touch. We’re all very proud of them.”
Besides keeping an eye on the talent coming through Mount, Lawton and Snow probably keep track of the team’s success on the ice. Key games to look for in the immediate future following the Minnesota junket include a Jan. 23 visit to Adelard Arena by unbeaten Bishop Hendricken, which is 5-0 in Division I thus far, and a Feb. 11 non-leaguer against Catholic Memorial of Boston. That game is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon at Adelard, offering local fans another great chance to check out this latest edition of the Mount St. Charles Academy hockey dynasty. |
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