By RYAN D. MURRAY

The No. 1 seeded Cranston West Falcons won the Boys Division II Hockey Championship on Saturday evening when they defeated the No. 3 seeded North Kingstown Skippers 4-2 during Game 2 of their best-of-three series at Cranston Veterans Memorial Ice Rink.

West finished the regular season undefeated (6-0-1), and then swept the playoffs.

Andrew Martin, the Falcons senior forward, earned the Finals MVP Award. Martin had two goals and three assists in the series, including a game-tying goal in Game 1, which knotted the score at 3 before Kaden Santurri, a junior, scored the game-winner in overtime and gave the Falcons a 4-3 victory.

“Best feeling in the world,” Martin said on winning the championship. “It’s amazing. I’ve been with these guys since I was a freshman. They’re my family. I wouldn’t want to win it with anyone else.”

Head coach Matt Brannon earns his first title as West’s head coach in his fifth season. Prior to that, Brannon has been an assistant coach with West since 2005-6. The Falcons last won the title in 2014 when they beat Burrilville.

“Great season,” Brannon said. “Obviously, with the adversity that’s happened the whole season with covid, our seniors really kept this group together.”

“October we had preseason camp, it was shut down back in November,” Brannon explained. “For us to come back in December, and the captains to keep this group together for an undefeated season … This is the first undefeated season in West history. So, it’s a great accomplishment for these kids. Obviously, it was a shortened season, but they worked hard all season to get to this point.”

Matt Corrente, West’s senior goalie made 25 saves in Game 2 and caps his high school career with a crown.

“It feels great,” Corrente said. “My four years, I’ve worked up to this, and it was just a great year for our team. The season was cut in half, but we loved every moment and we made the best out of it.”

Just two minutes and five seconds into Game 2, West drew a 1-0 advantage when Jaydin Rossi lit the lamp after assists from Martin and Mickey Becker-Norton.

The Falcons upped their advantage to 2-0 with 1:53 remaining in the second frame after Rossi assisted to Becker-Norton, who blasted a slap shot onto the top shelf for a power play goal.

With 13:46 remaining in the third period, Martin assisted in front to Justin Drohen for another power play tally and that gave the Falcons a 3-0 cushion.

But with 7:55 remaining, North Kingstown inched within two when Matt Gibbs recorded an unassisted goal and made it 3-1.

A little over a minute later, the Skippers pulled within 3-2 during a power play when Marcus Macchioni and Conall Gately assisted to Tanner Wadovick for a tally.

Nevertheless, with 1:13 to play and the Skippers goal abandoned, Martin scored into an open net and secured the title for West with a 4-2 win.