BLUSTERY NIGHT – BIG WIN

      In a game that became suddenly close deep in the third period, the Hanover Marauders continued their unbeaten ways in Division 1 with a 4-2 win at Exeter on a cold, blustery night.  With the win, Hanover goes to 6-0 in league play and 8-1 overall.

Two big points for Joey Goff

      The long bus ride to Exeter, the pressure of the upcoming school midterms and perhaps most importantly, a disarmingly warm rink temperature for such a cold night, had both teams coming out sluggishly in the first period.  While the Marauders had the best of play in the first, there really was little offensive flow for either squad, with the Blue Hawks perhaps setting the NH high school record for most icing calls in one period.  Despite the Upper Valley boy’s dominance, Exeter had two great scoring chances on breakaways as they regularly positioned danglers at the offensive blue line to get behind the Marauder defense.  However, senior goal Harris LaRock (23 saves) stoned both chances to keep the score at 0-0 after the first period.

      “Obviously Harris was very strong in the net,” said coach Dick Dodds following the game.  “He faced at least three breakaways and stopped them all.”

Two goals for Charlie Plottner

      The second period, as has been the case virtually all year for the Upper Valley boys, turned out to be the big difference maker.  An Exeter trip at 5:26 saw the first man-up of the night and the strong Hanover power play peppered Exeter goalie Jude Rogles (23 saves) repeatedly, but to no avail.  The strong thrusts into the offense zone continued for the Marauders and at 10:30, junior Joey Goff slipped a beautiful back hand pass to a charging Charlie Plottner who put it in stick side on Robles from up close to make it 1-0 Hanover.  Just a minute later, with Hanover on their second power play of the night, a David Lehmann to Owen Stadheim ripper from the right circle beat Robles high for a 2-0 advantage at 11:37.  As the game became a bit more physical, with several strong checks from both sides, the horn ended on the second with Hanover enjoying the 2-0 advantage.

      Two minutes into the third, the Plottner-Goff tandem struck again, this time with a bit of a scrum in front of the net leading to a Hans Williams to Goff to Plottner for his second goal of the night.  With all of the momentum Hanover continued to knock on the door repeatedly, only to be turned away by Robles.  In fact, half way through the third frame, Exeter had not had a shot on goal in the period.



     But at 9 minutes in, the wheels started to wobble a bit on Hanover’s bus.  A turnover in the neutral zone led to a nice Brendan Doyle wrister from the circle to make it 3-1.  All of sudden the Blue Hawks had life and one minute later, Doyle stuck again, this time on a breakaway, to make it 3-2.  With the partisan Rinks of Exeter crowd suddenly alive it looked like Hanover could be headed toward its first league loss of the year.

      However Elias Zinman would have none of that from the Exeter crowd and taking a beautiful Owen Stadheim feed from the behind the net on the next shift following the Blue Hawks goal, EZ iced the game for Hanover beating Robles glove side from the deep slot.  It was 4-2, there was 3:30 left, and Hanover was on its way toward another crucial win.



Huge goal for Elias Zinman

      “We had a couple of key moments that won us the game,” said Dodds.  “The first was Charlie’s goal.  We had been pretty lethargic up to that point and his goal really fired us up and got us going.  The second was Elias’s goal which really helped us put the game away.”


      Hanover continued to make the case for a team Lady Byng award, with no penalties on the night.

      With the loss, Exeter drops to 1-4 in league play, but their record is deceiving.  This is a very good team which has played some tough competition early thus far.  When they visit Hanover later this month, expect another close match-up between these two squads.

      The Marauders have a 7-day break for midterm exams and then hit the road to visit 3-1 Trinity, which has a win over Londonderry under their belts, next Saturday night in Manchester.  Study hard Marauders.