01:00 AM EST on Monday, March 21, 2005

BY CAROLYN THORNTON
Journal Sports Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The last time Burrillville won a hockey championship, Nicholas Obuchon was 5 years old and playing with the other Mites in the town's junior hockey league.

As a youngster, he'd watch all the fans pack the Levy Rink each week to watch the high school team play and hoped to be good enough one day to represent the Broncos. But Obuchon never imagined himself guiding Burrillville to a state title and being named the tournament MVP in the process.

He should have dared to dream so big.

With the next generation of Mite hockey players watching with wide-eyed admiration from behind the glass, the senior center held the Rev. Robert C. Newbold MVP plaque high above his head at center ice yesterday as he and his teammates celebrated a 5-1 victory over East Greenwich, which clinched the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Division II Interscholastic League Hockey Championship at Providence College's Schneider Arena.

After helping the Broncos take the lead in the best-of-three series with a goal in Saturday night's 6-2 victory, Obuchon -- Burrillville's scoring leader during the regular season -- assisted Sean Harriman on what would prove to be the game-winner yesterday. He quickly followed that with back-to-back goals late in the second period to give his team a commanding 4-1 lead.

"We stayed together as a team the whole year, got a lot of team goals accomplished, won our own tournament, and we just kept picking up steam as we went along," Obuchon said after helping the II-North champion Broncos clinch their first state title since 1993.

"He's a great kid," said coach Shane McConnell, once a player on three state-champion teams at Burrillville in the late 1980s. "Skates hard. Feisty. All over the ice. He knows how to get to the openings. Even though he wasn't a captain this year, he was a leader just by the way he played."

Part of an extremely focused group intent on redeeming themselves after falling to Moses Brown in last year's finals, Obuchon was one of seven Broncos who figured in the scoring yesterday.

His younger brother, Matthew, a sophomore, put Burrillville on the board 7 minutes into the game. John Lacouture came out of a faceoff at the Broncos' end and skated the length of the ice, firing a shot at Michael Peduto. The Avengers goalie made the initial save, but Obuchon came skating through the slot, grabbed the loose puck and knocked it home.

Len Kiernan's II-South champion Avengers evened the score with a goal by Jonathan Pannone at 8:31 of the second period. But Burrillville regained the lead less than a minute later, thanks to Harriman, who knocked back a rebound of a shot by John Coffey.

Nick Obuchon soon followed with his two goals, which he scored within a 37-second span, the first one a short-handed tally at 13:33.

"My partner Derek passed it to me in front and I just threw it through my legs and the next one Derek passed it out front and I just one-timed it home," Obuchon said. "Ninety percent of my goals this year have been from Derek and vice versa. We just connect good out there on the ice."

Broncos senior goalie Brandon Fournier was thrilled to see his teammates still clicking.

"Oh, believe me that was such a weight off my shoulders, it's not even funny," he said. "I was so happy when we went into the locker room up, 4-1, because that's a good team. (East Greenwich) can score."

But Fournier stood in the Avengers' way of finding the back of the net again, making 9 stops in the third period for a total of 27 saves on the night, while Lacouture added one more goal for good measure.

"Brandon played phenomenal all season," McConnell said of the senior, who established himself as one of the top goalies in the division after playing all of 20 minutes last season. "He's a great kid. He's a funny kid. He has a little bit of a swagger about him. He had confidence all season, and I'm very lucky as a coach to have a kid who hasn't played, in his senior year to come out and play the way he has."

First period -- B, Matthew Obuchon (John Lacouture) 7:00. Penalties -- B 1-2, EG 1-2.

Second period -- EG, Jonathan Pannone (Matthew Wodecki, Sean Donlon) 8:31. B, Sean Harriman (John Coffey, Nicholas Obuchon) 9:26; N. Obuchon (Derek Ducharme) 13:33; N. Obuchon (Ducharme) 14:10. Penalties -- B 2-4, EG 1-4.

Third period -- B, Lacouture (Nicholas Rambone) 13:39. Penalties -- B 5-10, EG 3-6.

Saves -- EG, Mike Peduto 11-10-11 -- 27; B, Brandon Fournier 9-10-9 -- 27.