Put the brakes
on. Relax. Exhale. It’s just one game in the standings, the same as
a win against Central or a loss to Bedford.
Just another mid-February game between two NHIAA teams, on a snowy Wednesday
night at Everett. Don’t get too high, don’t
get too low, just another game…but didn’t it feel just a little bit good to
watch the Hanover Marauders kick the crap out of Concord in their home barn
tonight in a 4-0 stomping to solidify second place in Division 1 NHIAA play
with four games to play? In the over 60 years (that is right sixty years) of high
school coaching experience between coaches Dodds and Walsh, I can’t imagine
they have seen this type of one-sided dominance too often between their two
clubs. Oh wait, there was last year’s
6-0 Concord stomping at Hanover. Maybe a
little payback in the air tonight?
But as lopsided
as the final tally ended up, this game was a lot closer than the box score. Concord is a great team, picked as the preseason
number 1 this year by HNIB. So they must
have been as surprised as anyone when the freight train Sy Oberting dialed up
one of his blue line bombs just 56 seconds in, and with the coolness that only
comes from a guy who can jet set to the West Coast and back over the weekend
for a music audition, #20 Hans Williams beautifully deflected the shot past Crimson
Tide goalie Parker Taylor to put the Marauders up 1-0. With many of us still confusedly asking in
the lobby as we shuffled in at 5:30 “They’re playing already?” it was freshman
goalie Ben Plottner, not of the NH Avalanche, who dominated the rushing Tide
forwards in close numerous times as the first period wound on. A little bit of a friendly post kept Concord
out of the scorer’s column, as did a smothering back check. However, in what would doom them tonight,
Concord get whistled for its second penalty of the period and on the man-up,
Matty Gardner pirouetted around the near side circle a few times before finally
realizing that the point of an offensive man-up is to score goals and with
that, his unassisted snipe made it 2-0 at 14:33.
Into the locker
room they went and were it not for the incredible intermission music selection
(always well done by the way Concord – keep giving us the Maxine Nightingale
because we appreciate it very much) perhaps we could have heard some rumblings coming
from the home locker room. But in what
is something rarely seen in a high level high school hockey game, the Crimson
Tide had zero (yes zero) shots on Plottner in the second period – thank you to
the smothering defense from Spencer Lawe, Curtis Rice, and Tom Lyons. But the Marauders would not return the favor
and with fury after flurry raining down on Taylor, it was Cameron Woods on the
man-up in front scrum on an assist from Gardner and Casey Graham to make it 3-0
heading into the final intermission. And doesn't it seem like Woods is always there to put these goals home - a sneaky, understated, lethal assassin in front of the net.
The
all-important three goal advantage, now all we wanted was the shutout and
Plottner (18 saves) obliged by stopping several point blank attempts with fewer rebounds
than Taylor Swift in a given year. With
Concord finding themselves again in the
sin bin it was big brother Charlie who stuffed in Hanover’s third
power play goal of the night on an assist from Gardner at 10:26 to complete the
scoring at 4-0 and in the process put cupid to shame with his pre-Valentine’s
Day archer goal celebration.
So with the win, Hanover climbs to 12-2 in
league play (13-4 overall) and sits solidly in second place with tonight’s
action still pending (like the Valley News the deadline for the blog site is
now 10:30 pm). But is doesn’t get any
easier, with a senior night tilt against fifth place Exeter on Saturday and
then, you guessed it, Concord at Thompson on Sunday. So savor the win, don’t forget to kiss your
mom tomorrow and wish her a Happy Valentine’s Day, and sorry guys, I got the
last gas station rose bouquet from Dan and Whits on the way home – start coming
up with the excuses now. See you at the
rink.
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