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.