On Saturday, the Cranston West hockey team cruised to a surprisingly easy 6-3 victory in game one of the Division I championship series against Burrillville. It was never that easy again, but for a Falcons team that made its living all year by toughing out key victories in the Division I-Eccleston circuit, that was just fine.

After dropping game two 5-4, the top-seeded Falcons played their best defensive game of the season and clinched their first championship since 2009 with a 3-0 victory over the third-seeded Broncos at Brown University’s Meehan Auditorium. It’s the eighth title in program history.

Austin Alzate scored goals in the first period and the third period, Ryan Beliveau added an empty-netter in the third and junior Anthony Lancellotti – fresh off a rough showing in Sunday’s game two – stopped all 25 shots he saw en route to the shutout. Senior captain Anthony Simeone earned MVP honors with three goals and four assists in the series.

“This is just a memorable moment,” Simeone said. “We worked 16 weeks for this. To come down to a game three, the pressure was on both teams. We just worked hard and came out on top.”

The championship is the first for the program since it won the Division I-A crown in 2009. This one came on the heels of an 8-8-2 season that included a strong finish. West won its final two games of the regular season and swept Coventry in the semifinals.

Sunday’s loss in game two was their first since Feb. 22, but they knew how to come back from it.

“We were a little disappointed,” Simeone said. “The first two periods, we were sloppy. It wasn’t West hockey. We just had to play our best.”

Defense led the turnaround.

West hadn’t posted a shutout since Jan. 25 and its only three shutouts all year came against last-place Coventry. The five goals the Falcons gave up Sunday weren’t exactly a reason for optimism. They’d also given up five in a loss to Burrillville late in the regular season.

With a championship on the line, they rose to the occasion. Defensemen Rudy Branca, Ryan Beliveau, Matt Botelho and Adam Turenne led the way.

“Our key tonight was to play good, solid defensive hockey, from forwards to the defensemen to the goalie,” said West head coach Mike Boyajian. “Defensively, nobody played well Sunday. We came out and improved on that.”

Lancellotti did the rest.

Two days after he couldn’t slow down a Burrillville surge in the game two loss, he delivered his best game of the season.

“I was just trying to go to basics, think about what I know as a goalie, all my technical stuff, staying mentally sharp,” Lancellotti said. “I had to forget about that game and think back to better games I had during the season. I had to reproduce that and I think I did.”

And he had support.

Alzate’s first goal broke a 0-0 deadlock late in the first period. With 1:03 left, he got control of the puck in the left circle, found a little daylight, skated right into it and ripped a shot past Burrillville goalie Kyle Wilkinson. Simeone and Mitchell Smith assisted.

After never leading in game two, the 1-0 cushion was big.

“We wanted to come out of the gate hard tonight,” Boyajian said.

Through much of the second period, Burrillville controlled the action and out-shot West 8-5, but Lancellotti wasn’t about to let the lead slip. He stopped a flurry of shots late in the period, including one from point-blank range off the stick of a wide-open Michael Keable.

“He had his biggest game of his career after struggling his last game,” Boyajian said. “That’s guts.”

Alzate added another goal less than three minutes in the third when he got loose on a 3-on-1 with Smith and Simeone. He finished easily on the left side for the 2-0 lead.

The two goals were fitting. Boyajian felt all season that having two lines capable of putting up big numbers made them a contender. On the biggest stage, he was proven right. Alzate finished the series with four goals and an assist, Simeone had three goals and four assists and Smith had one goal with six assists. From the top line, Travis Collins had a goal and four assists, Ryan Perry had two goals and one assist and Nick Kopsick had two assists. Beliveau added two goals from his spot on defense.

“Not a lot of teams have two lines that can put the puck in the net,” Simeone said. “It definitely makes us tough.”

Armed with the 2-0 lead, West didn’t let the Broncos generate much offense the rest of the way. Lancellotti made three saves on a Burrillville power play before West killed off a later penalty with no shots going to the net.

The Broncos pulled their goalie with 1:15 left but didn’t get a shot to the net before Beliveau controlled the puck in the neutral zone and chipped the puck down the ice, all the way into the open net.

Thirty-eight seconds later, the celebration was on.

“We had our peaks and valleys during the season, but I think we did a great job adjusting,” Boyajian said. “We moved some people around. We believed in the guys we put in those areas, and they trusted each other.”

West won the first game of the series 6-3 with one of its best performances of the season. On two goals by Simeone and one each from Beliveau and Alzate, West sprinted to a 4-0 lead in the first 19 minutes of the game. The Broncos got back within two late in the second period, but never closer. Collins scored a crucial goal with six seconds remaining in the second period to put West back up by three. Perry added a third-period goal for the final margin.

In game two, it was Burrillville that started fast. Just over five minutes into the game, Tyler Gautreau scored a power-play goal. The Falcons tied it soon after on a Simeone goal, but they would never lead. Burrillville opened up a 3-1 cushion in the second period then made it 5-1 early in the third. West got all the way back to 5-4 on a flurry of goals by Perry, Smith and Alzate in a span of just over three minutes. From there, West had several golden opportunities in the final few minutes but couldn’t get one past Wilkinson and the Broncos survived to force the third game.

In the end, the Falcons prevailed.

Their best season since 2006 ended with a championship.

“This is a tight group of guys,” Boyajian said. “They enjoyed each other’s company. If you saw one of them, you probably saw 20 of them together. After practice, they would sit in the locker room for 45 minutes, just enjoying each other’s company. A winning team is a happy team. They ended up happy this year. They bought into it and they worked hard.”