By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

SMITHFIELD --- Smithfield High’s worst performance of the year was still good enough to fetch them a victory on Friday night.
And Portsmouth High did its best to take advantage of the Sentinels’ dismal play and escape the Smithfield Ice Rink with a Game 1 victory in their best-of-three Division II semifinal-round series, but the hosts were able to skate away with a 6-4 win that pleased their fans, but not coach Rob Jackson.
“We didn’t play well at all,” added Jackson, whose top-seeded Sentinels are now 19-0 and one win away from advancing to the state finals for the third time in the last four seasons.
“We stunk the joint out. We just didn’t play. No energy, no puck movement, nobody really finished their checks. The way we’ve gotten to where we are is through hard work, dedication, guts, and determination, and tonight, we went 80 percent. It was awful. I’m sick to my stomach right now.”
Jackson hopes his team can do a turn for the better when the series resumes tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Portsmouth Abbey’s arena, but if the fourth-seeded Patriots (10-7-3) can even the series, then a third and deciding game will be held on Monday night back in Smithfield.
The Sentinels capped their unblemised regular season by notching a 6-2 win over the Patriots last Saturday in Portsmouth, but that ‘W’ didn’t come easy for the locals, and Jackson expects another tough battle tonight.
“It’s a very tough place to play,” said Jackson. “And (Portsmouth) will come out and play. When we played them last week, they assaulted us in the first period and went up 2-0. They were moving their feet and hitting everything in sight. I guarantee it’s going to be like a snake pit (again), and if we don’t come to play, they’re going to beat us.”
The Sentinels were led by the scoring touch of junior forward Paul Harrison and excellent goaltending from junior Vincent Tedino. Harrison, who scored seven goals during the regular season, came through with a hat trick, while Tedino was busy from start to finish in collecting 26 saves.
“If it wasn’t for my goaltender and Harrison, we would had lost this game,” said Jackson.
Harrison’s three goals came in the first two periods and gave the Sentinels a 4-2 lead heading into the final 15 minutes. That lead increased to three when Mike Giuliani found the back of the net with 11:09 to play in the game, but the Patriots refused to go away quietly.
Nick Libutti, who scored just three goals for the Patriots, netted the game’s next two scores, and his second goal came with 1:12 to play in the contest (after the Patriots yanked their goaltender, Matt Maggiacomo, in favor of a sixth attacker) and made it a 5-4 game.
But Cody Lange ended the drama and the suspense, when with 51.3 seconds on the clock and the Patriots continuing to attack with six skaters, he netted an empty-net score. 
“I give Portsmouth credit,” noted Jackson. “They’re a good team that’s well coached. They play hard and they’re a classy group of kids. But we didn’t have anything. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if we expect to win.
“I can live with getting beat. I can’t live with not giving it everything you got. When we played Cumberland in the semifinals last year and got beat, my kids poured their hearts and souls into it, We lost and it hurt like a son of a gun, but they gave it everything they had. Tonight, we didn’t do that.”
Colby Fugere scored the first goal of the game (his 32nd of the season) 9:44 into the first period, and after the Patriots tied the score on the first of two goals by Nathan Cole, Harrison came back with the next two goals (scored 2:26 apart from each other) to give the hosts the lead for good in the early stages of the second period.
Harrison’s third goal, scored 5:21 in the middle period, forced Portsmouth coach Tom Farrea to yank his starting goaltender, Cory Martin, and replace him with Maggiacomo, who ended up stopping 14 of the next 15 shots he faced.   
***
Portsmouth        1 - 1 - 2 -- 4
Smithfield         2 - 2 - 2 -- 6
First period: S -- Colby Fugere (Timothy Judge, Mike Giuliani), 9:44; P -- Nathan Cole (unassisted), shorthanded, 12:38; S -- Paul Harrison (Vincent Tedino), power play, 14:22.
Second period: S -- Paul Harrison (T.J. Gerlach, Mike Giuliani), 1:48; P -- Nathan Cole (Matt Chappell, Matt Abraham), 3:28; S -- Paul Harrison (John Chakuroff, Nick Bruno), 5:21.
Third period: S -- Mike Giuliani (John Del Padre, Colby Fugere), 3:51; P -- Nick Libutti (unassisted), 7:21; P -- Nick Libutti (Tim Mangold, Ben Peckham), power play, 13:48; S -- Cody Lange (unassisted), empty net, 14:09. 
Shots on goal: Portsmouth 30, Smithfield 30. Goalie saves: P -- Cory Martin (10 saves-14 shots), Matt Maggiacomo (5:21, second period, 14 saves-15 shots). S -- Vincent Tedino (26 saves).