"The minutes turn to hours . . . " Hanover 3 - Londonderry 1

Everett Logan reports in after a late night in Southern NH:

Being the last seed in the playoffs often means you have to play the hand you’re dealt, no matter how lousy. The Marauders opened the 2016 NHIAA Division I playoffs as the tenth seed against the host number seven seed Londonderry Lancers. Londonderry, with no permanent home rink of their own, decided to play some mind games with the Marauders by setting the game at 8:20 on a school night and at the Salem Icenter, the second furthest rink from Hanover in all of Division I, and one with an immense Olympic ice sheet that does not favor the Marauder’s grinding style of play. 

The shenanigans seemed as if they would pay off for the Lancers for much of the game, as they opened the scoring just 3:30 into the first period when senior captain Nick Donnelly beat Hanover goalie Gabe Loud with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle that found the top corner. Even NHL players have a hard time playing a physical game on Olympic rinks, and the Marauders were unable to establish much on the forecheck or slow the speedy Lancers’ first line down due to the massive ice surface. 

As if the game time and location were not enough, the referees seemed to add insult to injury as Hanover had the first of two apparent goals waved off. The first occurred midway through the first period when captain Johnny Goff seemingly put in the equalizer in a goal-mouth scramble. However, the referee clearly missed the puck entering the net and the teams ended the period with the 1-0 Londonderry lead intact.

The second period saw plenty of back-and-forth action on the large sheet, but Hanover was the only team able to put the puck past their opponent's goaltender. Seth Stadheim took a pass from his own zone and streaked behind the last Lancer defender to break in alone on goalie Cody Baldwin. Stadheim decked to his backhand and banked the puck into the net off of Baldwin’s pad. However, having to cover the large expanse of the Olympic rink clearly took its toll on the officiating crew, and an apparently winded referee did not hustle back with the breakaway and found himself a good sixty feet away from the net when the puck went in. He blew his whistle when he lost sight of the puck and shortly thereafter signaled no goal, waiting for Baldwin to produce the puck. When the puck was eventually retrieved buried in the inside of the goal, the referee looked sheepish but refused to reverse his call and signal a goal, to the anger and astonishment of the Hanover fans. On the other end of the ice, Loud proved equal to everything Londonderry could throw at him, and the second period ended the same as the first, with another uncalled Hanover goal and a 1-0 lead for the hosts. 

Hanover pulled out all the stops in the third and finally found a way to mount consistent pressure on the Lancers. Hanover showed that they were the better conditioned team as the large ice surface seemed to catch up to the home team as the game wore on. Loud made the save of the evening to keep Londonderry from securing an insurance goal when he shut down a Patrick Maloney breakaway to keep the game at 1-0. Nevertheless, Baldwin was equaling Loud in keeping quality shots at bay, and as the game clock ticked down, it looked like it would be a frustrating and heartbreakingly unjust end to the Marauders’ season. 


But, with just 5:33 left to play, captain Eric McCoy dished to linemate David Lehmann just inside the Londonderry blue line, and Lehmann fired a low wrist shot that beat Baldwin on the near post. The third time of putting a puck in the net was the charm for Hanover and this goal was finally officially tallied for the tying score. 

The equalizer energize the Marauders and deflated the Lancers, and just one minute later, defenseman Patrick Logan threaded 90-foot a pass across two zones to Goff who quickly beat his defender and wristed the go-ahead goal past Baldwin. The Marauders erupted in celebration, but there were still four and half minutes of hockey left to be played. As Gordon Lightfoot said of the waves that wrecked the Edmund Fitzgerald, the minutes turn to hours when nursing a one-goal lead in the third. With a minute and a half remaining, Baldwin retreated to the Lancer bench in favor of an extra attacker. After a moment of furious attack, Logan was able to clear the puck out of the zone up the right wing boards, where it was gathered by Stadheim, who quickly fed to Goff. The captain circled hard to the left to elude the last Lancer defender before getting his hands free to fire the puck from the Londonderry blue line into the center of the empty net and the insurance goal Hanover needed.

After Londonderry gained possession, they again pulled Baldwin, but their fate had been sealed and they were unable to mount significant pressure. The clock finally expired on the Longest Night, and Hanover mobbed Loud and his 26-save effort that brought home the 3-1 victory. With the win, the Marauders move on to the quarterfinals, facing second-seeded Bedford at 2:00 on Saturday at Sullivan Arena on the campus of Saint Anselm College. Hanover looks to avenge a 6-0 loss earlier in the season at the hands of the Bulldogs, while Bedford looks to move on toward its first ever Division I championship. 

Regular Season Finale, Hanover 5 - Nashua South 0

Thanks to Everett Logan for another great game report:

On the final day of the regular season, the Hanover Marauders traveled to Nashua’s Conway Arena to take on the Nashua South Panthers. Hanover looked to get off the schneid of their three-game losing streak and head into next week’s playoffs with some winning mojo. The visitors did not disappoint and headed home with a 5-0 victory. 

Even before the game began, the Hanover bench was short-handed. Missing the services of forwards Jonathan Goff and Elias Zinmann, and defenseman Alan Baker, Hanover reshuffled their lines and the early minutes showed the effects of the disruptions in line chemistry. However, Hanover began to gel as the period went on, and junior forward Jake Acker broke the scoring drought at 5:38 of the first. After strong cycling work along the boards low in the Nashua zone by Jensen Dodge and Seth Stadheim, Jake Acker picked up the puck behind the net and took a low-angle shot while walking in from the corner. Panther goalie Alyssa Bennett made the initial save, but Acker pushed in the rebound on the left post. 

Hanover dominated possession for the majority of the period, but Nashua mounted a furious counter attack during the final two minutes of the period. Looking for the equalizer, Mike Noke and Michael Fornier broke into the Hanover zone on a 2-on-1, but goalie Gabe Loud made a spectacular shoulder save on Noke’s high wrist shot off the last-second feed from Fornier.

Hanover began the second period with a quick penalty to captain Eric McCoy, but the Marauders’ aggressive penalty kill kept the Panther powerplay unit on their heels. Forward David Lehmann’s aggressive forecheck beat a Nashua defender to a loose puck behind the net, and then sent a Gretzky-esque centering pass directly to the tape of Casey Starr’s stick as the latter was floating down in the slot. Starr ripped a one-timer into the top shelf at 1:43 of second for the 2-0 Hanover lead.
Casey Starr tallied a "goal of the year" candidate
to give the Marauders a big boost to start the second 
Lehmann nabbed another assist in setting up Hanover’s third goal, as he outworked his Panther marker on the right-wing boards and sent the puck to lineman Drew Tengdin at the right face-off circle. Tengdin fired a low shot off Bennett’s pads, and McCoy quickly banged it home for Hanover’s third goal.  

One minute later, junior defenseman Patrick Logan circled back to grab a loose puck in his own zone and rushed the puck up center ice, splitting three Nashua defenders before wristing a rocket from just inside the blue line that went bar-down for the unassisted goal and the 4-0 lead. 

At 6:51, the Marauders converted their final insurance goal after a beautiful feed from Acker to Stadheim was stuffed by the goalie  .Acker quickly chased down the rebound and centered the puck back to Jensen Dodge who banged it in on the crease for the five-goal lead. 

Nashua made a bid to break the shutout with a point blank shot at 12:30, but Loud made the quick flash with his pad to make the save and preserve the shutout. 

The third period saw no scoring, but plenty of fireworks as the teams combined for twelve penalties. The frustrated Panthers spent the majority of the time in the box, with six minor penalties and two misconducts. Unfortunately, Hanover could not convert on any of their man-up opportunities, but the combination of the relentless Hanover forecheck and Nashua’s revolving door to the penalty box kept the pressure off Loud and allowed Hanover to coast to the finish line with the 5-0 shutout intact. 

With the win, Hanover finishes the regular season 8-9-1 and will head into the playoffs as the #10 seed. The Marauders will face #7 Londonderry on Wednesday evening to open the state tournament, time and location to be announced. 

In case anyone wants a reminder of what happened the last time Hanover and Londonderry met on Jan 17th, here's a good shot from Paul Stinson of Capt Goff celebrating from his backside

More of Paul's pics from that eventful Jan night, and tons more from throughout the season can be found here:

http://hanoverhockeyphotos.phanfare.com/7124926#imageID=253304856

And, the write-up of that Jan 16 game, which the Marauders won 3-2 can be found here:

Jan 16 - Hanover 3, Londonderry 2

Mar 2 - Concord 5, Hanover 0

On a bitter-cold Wednesday evening, the Marauders traveled south for a late evening clash with second-place Concord at the always hostile confines of Everett Arena. Hanover looked to get back in the winning habit as they head into next week’s playoffs, but everything was coming up Crimson as the Tide rolled over the visitors with a 5-0 shutout. 

As anyone who’s been around NH hockey for any length of time knows, the officiating is never friendly to visitors in Concord, but the Marauders found themselves the benefactors of two penalties on the home team and enjoyed over a minute of a 5-on-3 powerplay just early in the first period. Despite good offensive zone possession and a number of quality shots by Will Smith and Jake Acker, the Marauders couldn’t push the biscuit past senior goalie Ben Nelson. 

The officiating soon returned to “normal” as Hanover found themselves the victim of a baffling interference call when Concord forward Jared Grondin skated into the path of advancing defenseman Patrick Logan and proceeded to fall down. What in any other arena would have been deemed incidental contact sent Logan to the box and set Concord’s potent powerplay on the first of their numerous man-up opportunities of the evening. At just over a minute into the man-up, senior Matt Norris set up fellow captain Bradley Murphy for the ice breaker at 13:25.

Lady luck smiled on Concord again, but this time with Hanover on the powerplay. Crimson defenseman Matt Chorlian sent a long clear from center ice behind the Hanover net. As goalie Luke Ratliff circled back to retrieve it, the puck took a freak bounce and rebounded into the Hanover crease to be tapped in by forward Andy Cole who was streaking to the net on the forecheck. 

The second period saw more Crimson luck as Hanover was sent to the box three more times on puzzlingly phantom calls. On Concord’s first powerplay of the frame, the 230-pound Norris parked himself in the low slot and tipped home a shot from the point by Chorlian for a 3-0 lead at 7:17. Less than three minutes later, Concord’s man-up unit struck again with Murphy’s second goal of the game, a wrist shot from the right face-off circle off a feed from Liam O’Brien. 

The third period saw the most pressure from the Marauders as they put twelve shots on the Concord net, but Nelson and substitute goalie Griffin Gilbert were equal to all of them. Concord put the final nail in the coffin at 7:05 of the final stanza when Murphy stripped puck off a Hanover forward in the high slot and wristed it top shelf for the hat trick. 

Hanover mustered 25 shots, but couldn’t solve Concord’s stalwart goaltending. Ratliff made 32 saves in goal on the Marauder end. 

With the win, Concord drew even with Bishop Guertin for a share of first place in NHIAA Division I. The two teams will square off against each other on Saturday in their season closer to decide the regular-season title and top playoff seed. Hanover heads to Nashua on Saturday for their final game of the regular season and looks to get some winning momentum against Nashua South before heading into next week’s opening round of the state playoffs. The puck drops at 2:40 at Conway arena.