PROVIDENCE — The Dartmouth High School Hockey team got a taste of the big leagues after beating local rival Old Rochester 13-5 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in downtown Providence on Friday, Jan. 14 .

“I think [the players] were all really excited to play in a real arena,” said Head Coach Mike Cappello.

The over 11,000 person stadium is home to Providence Bruins, the AHL development team for the Boston Bruins.

As part of the matchup, players and their families were invited to stay after the game to watch the AHL matchup between the Bruins and the Hartford Wolfpack.

The Indians started off strong, keeping the puck mostly in their attacking zone and scoring the only two points of the first period. Senior Reid Martin scored the first goal while senior Cullen Larrabee scored the second off of a key pass from senior and Team Captain Josh Nelson.

The offense continued through the second period. Old Rochester scored first and the two teams traded goals until they were tied 4-4 with about five minutes to go in the period.

About a minute later, Dartmouth’s Damien Medeiros (senior) scored back-to-back with just six seconds between the two goals.

The Bulldogs responded with a goal of their own with less than a minute to go, looking to cut Dartmouth's lead to one going into the final period. But again the Indians fought back to score a quick goal seven seconds later, this time from sophomore Maddux Carreiro.

As the third period began, the score was 7-5 and Dartmouth only extended their lead from then on.

The Indians scored six straight goals in the final period from six different players, ending the match 13-5.

While no Dartmouth player recorded a hat-trick (three goals in a game), Martin, Larrabee, Medeiros, and senior JC Frates each scored two. Frates also had three assists while Martin and Medeiros had two and Larrabee had one.

Other goal scorers for Dartmouth included: Carreiro, Aiden Cruz (freshman), Kai Andrade(sophomore), Lucas Camara (sophomore), and Ben Harrington (sophomore).

The game was an out-of-conference exhibition as Dartmouth is Division II and OR is Division III, so it will not count on either team’s season record, but individual stats will still be counted.

After the game, Cappello said that he was happy to see some first-time goals from players that don’t usually get as much play time, but the game was mostly about getting the team back into form after the school’s recent covid sports pause.

“Today was a lot about getting ready,” he said. “It was an opportunity to get our legs back under us.”

As Dartmouth prepares for two tough matchups against league opponents Norwell and Bridgewater-Raynham next week, Cappello said the team will work on matching their offensive productivity with a more robust defense.

“We scored a lot today and that’s always good but we want to focus on getting better defensively,” he said.