Jersey Day

Coming into tonight’s game between 12-3-1 Bedford and the 9-7 Hanover Marauders, everyone knew this would be a good one.  Bedford has historically (well in the last decade) been the class of the NHIAA, and although a little down this year, the sight of those black uniforms can be as intimidating as a meeting with coach Dodds explaining why you were cutting social studies class.  But the two teams have always been similar – classy on the ice and off, incredible coaching, skilled players.  Throw in the fact that Bedford has won three out of the last four state titles, and you get a little jealous of them – plus they even have a Trader Joes now.

But Hanover has been peaking of late with strong performances against Exeter and especially Trinity in their last two.  And the two sides had already done battle once before this year with the Bulldogs taking a Christmas tournament scorcher 2-1 only 8 weeks ago. So it was anyone’s guess how this one would play out.  But one thing was for certain – Hanover had to win the special teams match-ups and stay out of the sin bin, an especially hard task as their recent strong play has been inversely related to their plummeting in the standings for the team Lady Byng.

So before a good Campion crowd for a Wednesday, especially all of those girlfriends wearing their boys’ jerseys which I am sure did not help to maintain the testosterone level within the normal range, Hanover went toe-to-toe all evening long with the Bulldogs.  And with Ben Plottner standing on his head and keeping this one close, Hanover staked a 1-0 lead when Augie Oberting fired one in from the point and was tipped downward by a screening Rowan Wilson just 4:02 in.  But as has been so often this season, Hanover could not capitalize on multiple good opportunities and this would be the last goal of the night for the locals.  And it was the four penalties that hurt hem so badly on the other side, with Bedford knotting up the score 50 seconds into the second and then going ahead in the third on the man-up at 5:57.  A empty netter at the end sealed the deal with a 3-1 victory of the visitors.

With the loss, Hanover drops to 9-8 on the season with Brady on Saturday night for a senior night send-off – then its playoff time starting next week.  I suggest having the moms wear the jerseys from now on – nothing that curbs a teenage boys testosterone more than that.

See you at the Rink…

   

Trifecta

      After tonight’s NHIAA MMA rumble between the Hanover Marauders and the Trinity Pioneers a few truths have now come into complete clarity.  For one, these two teams absolutely despise each other and it is fortunate that the Saint Anselm Sullivan Arena benches are on the opposite sides of the ice.  Second, truth one is exaggerated when one team beats the other three times and is responsible for 60% of said team’s total season losses.  Third, while one team believes in the whole Book, another puts all of their faith into the third Gospel guy who never disappoints.  And fourth, the whole of NHIAA Division 1 had better pay attention, because Dick Dodds and his staff have Hanover absolutely on overdrive heading into the final week of the season.

     Into cavernous Sullivan Arena, with its multicolored college banners reminding the Saint Anselm students of all the places they didn’t get into college before enrolling, the Marauders and Pioneers squared off for the third time this season.  And as he always is, there was Luke Ives between the pipes for the Marauders, who has killed more Pioneers than a Sierra Nevada winter.  Then the puck dropped and for the first 15 minutes, this one looked like Ives and Marauders were going to get slapped right back up I-89.  The Pioneers were devastating, and at one point they remained in the Hanover defensive zone for nearly four minutes hammering Ives and the beleaguered defense.  They even had a goal disallowed for a high sticking call deep into the first.  But Hanover held, and as the choppiness escalated, they walked into first intermission on the man-up.

      And the second did not diasspoint.  With at times making the Ali vs Frazier series seem like a pillow fight, the teams got progressively more and more physical…and paid the price in penalty time.  However, just a few minutes in, Jack Stadheim drove the corner and won the puck back to Patrick Daly whose cross-ice pass to linemate Spencer Lawes set up a perfect rope from deep and it was the sophomore stud putting Hanover up 1-0.  Now the lead nearly evaporated 30 second later with a pissed Trinity team hitting Ives’s post, but Carter Auch, with his first score of the year, took a pass from Augie Oberting soon thereafter and rifled it in from close to put Hanover up 2-0 just 2:38 in.  As it got more and more physical, Ives got better and better, and made a specialty on the night of getting checked into his net yet making goal line pad saves while being horizontal.  And just when that crucial third goal seemed to be destined for Trinity, Curtis Rice shut down those Trinity prayers and took an ill-fated outlet pass unassisted and stuffed home the breakaway to make it 3-0 Marauders heading in the third.

       And it sure was one heckuva third period between roughing penalties, acrobatics by Ives, Pioneer fans losing their composure, and what we are sure were escalating pleasantries exchanged between the boys on the ice.  And even when Trinity cut it to 3-1, there was no way Ives would relinquish the lead. Pulling the goalie with three minutes left, Trinity was able to punch one in at 14:58 to make it a one-goal game, but the horn sounded, with Hanover taking home the 3-2 victory.

      So with their best win of the season, Hanover climbs to 9-7 (11-8 overall) with a big one against Bedford in 48 hours and then senior night on Saturday.   Hanover now becomes the team that no one sitting above them in the standings wants to tangle with in the playoffs – lots of seniors on their farewell tour, the best coaching staff in the business (I mean forget about moving Curtis to forward – the real genius is using Frozen 2 for motivation – move over Scotty Bowman!) and completely peaking when it matters. Look out NHIAA, the Marauders are dealin now.

       See you at the rink…

Almost

      In the month since we last saw the Exeter Blue Hawks put a licking on the Hanover Marauders 7-1 at Campion, the teams seem to have gone in different directions.  While Exeter had vaulted to the upper echelon of the NHIAA standings with an 11-2-2 record, Hanover had come down to earth a bit and sat in seventh place at 8-6 coming in to today’s contest.  But the Marauders had demonstrated that they have the grit to beat anyone – as victories over Trinity, Pinkerton and a close game with Bedford could attest.   So with the melodies of Frozen 2 ringing in their ears, the one question on everyone’s mind was whether Hanover could take that game from January 8th and just let it go in this one and put a pounding on the Blue Hawks.

      So the puck dropped just before the 3:00 pm at the site of the infamous danglergate incident and off we went to start the last week of the 2019-20 regular season. And from the beginning this was a different Hanover team. Shortened bench, more get-up in the skate, really putting the Blue Hawks on their heels. You had the captain narrowly avoiding assault charges as he laid out two Exeter defenders on the fore check, Brendan Brigham almost notching one from the point and Ben Plottner stoning all of the few opportunities he faced.  So with the period ending at 0-0 tie with no penalties, Hanover having blanked the potent senior-laden first line of the Blue Hawks, there was sense of good things coming for the locals as they stepped back on the cavernous Supreme rink. Hanover even outshot the Blue Hawks 8-5.

      And into the second it went with a fired-up Hanover team giving the Blue Hawks every bit as much as they took.  A dubious interference call on Exeter had the Marauders on the man-up midway through the period and then on a boarding penalty that in any venue other than a hockey arena would be a case of felonious assault against a minor, Hanover went up on the 5-3.  However, they could not put it home (and narrowly avoided giving up a shorthanded breakaway goal thanks to Plottner) and it was the Blue Hawks who got on the board first just before the second period intermission to make it 1-0.

      Back and forth they went in the third before Cam Woods drove deep into the far corner and passed back to a waiting Jack Stadheim whose rifle ricocheted off of the Exeter net minder to a waiting Curtis Rice who finished it calmly to tie it at 1-1.  And it stayed that way…for about 30 seconds…as an odd-man rush beat Plottner to make it 2-1.  And they battled and battled - the Exeter speed vs the Hanover grinders – and with Hanover pulling for the extra man late, Exeter iced with an empty-netter 3-1. Shots on goal 20-17 Exeter - yeah it was that close.

     So what do you take from this one?  Well Hanover was close and proved they can compete with anyone on their away ice.  They will need that grit as they continue the gauntlet against Trinity and then Bedford next week.  Sitting at 8-7, it will be huge to have the chance to host a home playoff game – a chance that probably comes with winning two out of the last three.  Maybe all it will take is some more team bonding to get us there – Toy Story 4 boys?

     See you at the rink…

Penalty Killed

Tonight's rematch with the Concord Crimson Tide was supposed to be a grudge match between two perennial NHIAA powers.  With the Marauders sitting in seventh place with an 8-5 record, the expectation was that there would be a much better game with the 1st place Tide having overpowered Hanover 7-0 one week ago.


So with a full house at Campion, unusual for a Wednesday afternoon, the Marauders came out with a clear game plan - be aggressive, be disruptive and don't allow the talented Tide to have a clear lane to the net. 


Well the local boys were aggressive, and they were disruptive, but unfortunately they were also penalized.  With the Marauders giving up six penalties on the night, Concord converted on five of them and went on to a 6-1 win that was closer than the final score. The lone bright spots were the play of netminder Ben Plottner and the second period scrum goal by Brendan Brigham assisted by Rowan Wilson and Patrick Daley.


With the victory, Concord remains atop the NHIAA standings with Hanover maintaining a hold on seventh.  The gauntlet continues for Hanover on Saturday at Exeter, then its Trinity, Bedford and Bishop Brady for a senior night ending next week. And I hear that the boys are going to see Frozen 2 tomorrow afternoon - sounds like a brilliant way to get the testosterone back within the normal range to avoid future six-penalty nights.


See you at the rink...

Campion Win

Driving in to today’s NHIAA Division I hockey clash between the Hanover Marauders and Manchester Memorial Crusaders, one could tell change was afoot in the Upper Valley.  Whether it was the Prius with a Trump 2020 sticker and Vermont plates parked in front of Dan and Whit’s, the Dartmouth student who crossed East Wheelock in the crosswalk off of their phone and gave a polite wave of thanks as they hustled to not tie up traffic, or a movie that actually looked worth watching advertised on the Hopkins Center marquee, something seemed a little different.  And walking into Campion confirmed all of the suspicions as the Marauders had gone goofy foot and were on the visitor’s bench for the start of this critical game. 

And you knew the wily Hanover coaching staff needed to do something, anything, because with a goal drought now spanning over two complete games, the locals were getting desperate.  Perhaps shooting for two periods at exercise bikes behind the glass rather than scowling hockey moms and dads living vicariously through their high school children would shake things up for the Marauders.  Throw in line changes that featured more of a twist than the former housekeeper returning to get something she forgot from the Park’s basement (see this year’s Best Picture winning film for esoteric reference) and we had hope for some goals this afternoon.

And as usual, Dick Dodds and his coaching staff pulled all of the right strings as the locals  came away with a 3-1 victory to run their record to 8-5 (10-6 overall) and keep pace with the rest of the upper tier of the division.  With Cool Hand Luke Ives between the pipes, the Marauders came out clearly with a chip on their respective shoulders and hammered Crusader netminder Mason Langevin from the opening horn.  But as has often been the case this season, the visitor’s post seemed to have a magnetic attraction to the puck with Hanover clanging two during the opening period. It was not until freshman Jack Stadheim took a puck deep in his own defensive zone and brought it up the far boards beating two defenders before slipping a cross-ice beauty to Curtis Rice waiting on the door step for the tap-in.  With Rice’s goal and the ensuing no holds barred celly at 14:26, the Hanover goal drought ended at nearly 105 minutes.

Into the second it went and almost immediately it seemed like this was going to be a rout when Spencer Lawe on the point found Brendan Brigham deep whose pass in the slot to John Hill (always seems to be in front of the net doesn’t he?) rifled in a shot on Langevin that rebounded back to him for a blast to make it 2-0 just 48 seconds in.  Now another change that clearly was evident tonight was this was much more of a physical game for the Marauders – almost like tonight they earned the right to wear those tims on their feet.  Lots of aggressive hits both on the fore-check and in the defensive zones.  However, while making for some entertaining spectating, the locals did get whistled for their sins, even going down on a 5-3 which left them vulnerable to a Crusader goal to make it 2-1 at 9:13.  But back and forth it went until it was Rice finding Cam Woods in deep whose outlet to Jack Gardner was sent in on a prayer from the blue line and at 11:46 it was 3-1.

The third was just what you would expect from two teams who clearly had forgotten the lessons of love and harmony from the day before.  Big hits, some injuries, likely some insights shared among the boys about their affection for their respective moms and when it was over, Luke Ives had another great game with 11 saves and the boys walked off with the victory outshooting the Crusaders by 48 shots. A crucial win and a gritty win. Some walking wounded too that we hope are going to be OK for the stretch drive.

So with the victory over the Crusaders, Hanover heads into a four game stretch of Concord, Exeter, Trinity and Bedford that will determine final seeding with the NHIAA playoff looming.  Let’s hope the extra time off on the school vacation week allows for some healing and can’t wait to see what changes are in the works for Concord on Wednesday.

See you at the rink…

 

Rolled Tide

Terrible job by Concord tonight.  Absolutely brutal.  All that hype and they completely fell flat.  Never seen such a disappointing performance by the Crimson Tide at Everett  You expect this sort of thing out of Bow, but not a program like Concord.



I mean seriously, how do you play Louis Prima's Brooklyn Boogie through the entirety of the second period intermission?  Usually love the music coming from the Tide, but tonight we got 1940s-era big band jazz for a high school hockey game.  I know having the new B. Good restaurant down the street makes you feel a bit high brow Concord, but please keep grandpa's clarinet away from the rink.



As for the game, well Concord did much better on that end - 7-0 win - and could have been more. 


With the loss, Hanover drops to 7-5 in league play and limps into Saturday's game against Memorial with no goals in the last 90 minutes of hockey.  Maybe we should borrow a page from the Tide and play something from Benny Goodman during the warm-up.



See you at the rink...

Speak of the Devil

There’s a few facts we now know to be true after tonight’s 6-0 loss to the Salem Blue Devils…1) the Salem Hew Hampshire Supercuts must have gone out of business around October 10^th 2) Lake Canobie must have had to scrap their no mustaches policy this year so they could get enough summer help 3) the now 7-4 Hanover Marauders must immediately switch all of their remaining Saturday night home games from Campion to any other rink in the state – Saturday night road trips to Notre Dame arena anyone?

A brutal loss, but let’s rewind and remember the Marauder stink that emanated from Tri-town last weekend and how the team rebounded so strongly this week against Trinity.  So a chance for redemption on Wednesday against the 1st place Concord Crimson Tide and we can now  look forward to the annual tradition of the Hanover captains parents picking up the pre-game bar tab at Buffalo Wild Wings for all Marauder families traveling to Everett (who says you can't start new traditions?)

See you at the rink…

Death Skate

Coming after what was their worst loss of the season just four days earlier with an uninspired, grit-less, fecal-show against Londonderry, the Hanover Marauders came into this afternoon’s game against Trinity facing a turning point.  With a gaudy 8-1-1 record and in second place in NHIAA Division 1, one would expect the Pioneers to be probably reminiscing about last March at Campion when they ended Hanover’s season with an upset victory in the state quarterfinals.  But little did the Pioneers know as they immigrated up 1-89 that Dick Dodd’s Marauders team – since that Londonderry loss – had not seen one puck in practice.  That compared to the Marauder coaching staff these past few days, Herb Brooks appeared sweeter then Catherine Farrell.  That Wayne Burwell had them all benching twice their weight and that the Hanover parents had fed their boys – even the vegans - nothing but bloody red meat with a side of mean for three straight nights. 

So into that context the now 7-3 (9-4 overall) Marauders came out and put on an ass-whipping (sorry public school censors but your historical overreach does not extend to this blog) on Trinity that sent them back to the Queen City probably wondering how the heck this happened.  Because what we saw tonight shows what happens when you want it more, play more physical, play smarter, coach better – that talent alone doesn’t win hockey games.  Dick Dodd’s Marauders wanted it more tonight, and today they showed that they can beat anyone as they came away with the 3-1 victory.

There wasn’t too much to report in the first except that you could tell the boys had a chip on their shoulder – heck even the Hanover moms looked a little pissed (at least our family’s mom did).  High energy, aggressive fore-check, D holding and Trinity killer Luke Ives between the pipes.  But in the second the boys got it going early when Jack Stadheim kicked it out to Tom Lyons at the point who rifled in a wrister on senior Ryan Brewitt who like Rick-O-Shay kicked it back to a waiting John Hill poaching exactly where he should be in front and hammered it home at 1:22.  But almost immediately thereafter, in a new wrinkle in the hockey rules, Trinity’s Marc L’Herueux gang tackled Ives as he lay sprawled in the net on the goal line having made the save.  However, I guess there is a new position in hockey called fullback and with the goal-line push, Trinity was awarded a dubious goal to tie it at 1-1.  The rest of the period featured strong penalty kills by both teams, with Trinity really owning the better of play to finish the period knotted at 1.

Into the third they went and from the beginning, you could see that all of that controlled anger since the Saturday night massacre at Tri-town was starting to have its effects on the visitors.  Hanover was hitting harder, skating faster, trash-talking more – love this game.  But despite out shooting Trinity 10-2 on the period, Hanover could not finish it.  Both teams had great chances with the Pioneers rattling the post and Cam Woods’s sniping one that Brewitt’s quick glove hand stoned.  But it was deep in the third when the Pioneers committed the Cardinal sin – well maybe not the Cardinal sin but bad enough – and were rung up for the penalty while pressing in their own offensive zone.  Down the puck game to an offensive zone face-off for Hanover, and from there Stadheim collected it at the near left circle, walked it in a few steps and lightning fired it on net with a screening Curtis Rice and Woods in front.  Not sure if it was tipped or not but doesn’t matter – 2-1 Hanover with just over a minute left.  In desperation, Trinity then pulled their goalie and Rowan Wilson iced it with the empty-netter with 2 seconds left.

Ives was awesome and lived up to his Pioneer-killer reputation making 25 saves on the night.

So with the win, Hanover sets up a showdown with Trinity at their place in two and half weeks.  From now until then we get to rumble with Salem, Concord twice and Exeter amongst others.  Tonight we will allow one green bean on the dinner plate, then it’s back to the brown meals until Saturday.  And I have a feeling the boys don't see another puck in practice until Presidents Day.

See you at the rink…

Lanced

Coming in to tonight’s away game pitting the Hanover Marauders against the Londonderry Lancers, on paper this seemed like an easy one for Hanover.  6-2 league record, a win against Pinkerton who had knocked Concord from the unbeaten ranks, and a four game league winning streak going up against a 2-4-1 Lancer team.  However, those records are somewhat deceptive, as Hanover had squeaked by some lesser hyphenated teams while Londonderry owned a tie against Salem, and had really thus far played only the big boys on the NHIAA Division 1 circuit.  And when it was over, we once again learned that the old hockey mantra of “you can’t mail it in against anyone” is unimpeachable, as the Marauders sputtered to a 2-1 loss to fall to 6-3 in league play and 8-4 overall.

Certainly Hanover owned the better of play throughout this one, but again had trouble on the offensive end despite some line shuffling and parental prayers to the goal gods.  But clearly the Hanover boys and their parents have spent too much time over the years going to hockey games on Friday nights and Sunday mornings and not being where they should be, so all of those prayers to the goal gods were promptly ignored and Hanover found themselves knotted at 0-0 after the first.  We got a little love at the beginning of the second, when John Hill found Patrick Daly behind the net and his nifty pass found a wide open Jack Stadheim in the mid slot for a quick wrist shot score to make it 1-0.  But the gods are cruel, and soon thereafter an excruciating one minute span saw the Lancers stuff one in close, get a penalty on the play, and then score on the ensuing power play to completely upend the game sheet.  Despite heavy pressure throughout, including a 6-4 to end the game being on a man-up and pulling goalie Ben Plottner (who had another stellar performance in the loss) that’s how it ended.

And it doesn’t get any easier because once the dust settles and you’ve taken your third shower to finally clean off the Tri-Town arena stench, the boys face Trinity, Salem and Concord. So for those parents who still monitor their son’s google search history, in addition to “JLo” and “Shakira” on the list, be prepared to see search terms like “death skate”, “what is the world record for number of burpees in one hour”, “Miracle skating scene” and “hockey coach torture”. 

See you at the rink…