Doing Their Job

      After going 0-2-1 in their last three games, albeit against very stiff competition, we heard rumors about some acting out behaviors to try and break the recent bad karma for the Hanover Marauders.  Burning all of the clothes worn to recent games, not bathing until there was another win, even boycotting any Jolly Green Giant vegetables were all acts that we heard were performed to help turn it around before tonight’s critical match-up with the Bishop Brady Green Giants.  Yes, Jenny Williams is your POC extraordinaire, and we have talked to her, and she is OK now and is back to bathing and eating peas.  We hope it helped Jenny and thanks for being so dedicated.

      So with the POCs and all of the other senior parents and players facing their last regular season game in a Marauder’s uniform, the 13-3-1 Marauder juggernaut (14-5-1 overall) headed to what can only be described as New Hampshire’s armpit, the always odiferous Tri-town arena, for a late Saturday night game that had a lot of playoff implications.  Grab a beer (or five) before the game, watch a Tier IV Mite parent implode in an expletive-laden diatribe against his 8 year-old in the lobby while waiting for our game to start, wonder who in their right mind would be smart enough to get into dental school and then decide to put their office here in this hellhole, and enjoy all that hockey night in Hooksett brings time and time again. 

      But plain and simple, the Upper Valley boys needed a win to avoid the chance of losing a home playoff game, with the bleak prospect of having to face a confident Trinity squad in (yikes) Sullivan Arena or a suddenly resurgent Exeter Blue Hawks team at the Rinks of Exeter – so scary I almost forgot my dangler.  Bishop Brady came in at 8-8 and in eighth place in NHIAA with some narrow losses (2-1 to Concord, 3-1 to Exeter) that heralded that this one was going to be tough.

      So the puck dropped in the pit of humanity on the North rink and for the first period, all of our hearts were probably in our chest.  This was a big game, and despite owning the possession, we could not put the puck in the net.  As the time drew on, the Green Giants became a bit more emboldened, and the Marauders a bit more tentative, and all of a sudden it was 0-0 at the first intermission and Hanover was facing now over 110 minutes since scoring their last goal.

      So into the second they came and the Giants took it to them for the first two minutes.  And then, in an act of unexplainable and undeserved forgiveness from the TriTown gods, Hanover was blessed as Hans Williams found Sy Oberting at the point and his rebound kicked around in front before #18 Will Laycock hammered it home and the curse was broken at 2:12.  But this was only a 1-0 lead and these Green Giants don’t have jolly in front of their names for a reason.  They just brought it and soon thereafter a Hanover hooking penalty had them facing a very scary penalty kill.  Now this won’t make any headlines, nor it will be written about in the Valley News tomorrow, but this penalty kill was the key to the game.  Brady was bringing it, the defense was under duress, and goalie Ben Plottner was taking shot after shot in front.  But stoning the Giants like they were Tessie Hutchinson, Hanover survived not only the 5-4, but subsequently a 1:20 minute 5-3.  With a newfound spring in their skate, Hanover went up first on a 5-4 of their own and then a 5-3 and with the power play looking like the ’85 Edmonton Oilers, Matty Gardner found Oberting at the left circle, whose cross ice pass found Casey Graham for a one-timer back door for a big freshman goal to make it 2-0 at 13:57.  Less than a minute later it was Curtis Rice stepping in at the neutral zone on a feed from Graham for a long range wrister with 12 second left to get that all important third goal making it 3-0 into the locker room.

      And then it became less tense and a whole lot more fun as Hanover crushed in the third.  First it was Toño Correa on a pass from Graham via Gardner at 11:12 and then Rice finished it off with a long range blast at 14:09 on Graham’s third assist via Joey Goff.  Final 5-0.  The scoring curse had been broken and with it, Hanover earns that all-important fourth seed and a home playoff game next Saturday night.

      Plottner had 14 saves and earned yet another shut out on the season - his fifth.  The Marauders got off the snide with 5 goals.  No one got seriously hurt.  Awesome.

     So with the great regular season finale win Hanover finishes 14-3-1 in NHIAA play. They have beaten two of the three teams ahead of them in the standings and they know they can beat anyone.  Next up is a home playoff game for the chance to go the best night in New Hampshire high school hockey, the semifinal double header at JFK.  And yet again we see why coach Dodds and his staff are the best in the business with the avoidance of Bedford in the potential semifinal - brilliantly played and of course, following the game plan drawn up this summer perfectly.  I will never know how he got the boys to tank the game and not score against Bedford on Thursday at Sullivan to make the seeding set up this way - the man is a legend.


      Now every shift counts from here on in as the playoffs are here.  Time to tell your sons to play even harder this game Hanover dads even though you tell them to play hard every game as they walk out the door ignoring you.  Time to grow your playoff beards Hanover moms and remember the difference between a hockey mom and a bulldog is just lipstick.  Its playoff hockey time in Hanover - where it still matters.  See you at the rink.