First Win

There comes a time in a season when the coach needs to push the right button to get the team on track…switch up the lines, change the post-game meal, throw the trash can around the locker room between periods…you get the point.  And sometimes you just need to schedule the right team to try and break a scoring drought.  For coach Dick Dodds and the 0-2 Hanover Marauders, scheduling the Brady Green Giants for a late Wednesday school night game was just that right button to push.  For after a slow start, it was the first scoring line that carried Hanover to a 5-2 victory for their first win of the season.

And like the arena in which they played, this one wasn’t pretty.  And the goals were not especially spectacular.  But each goal came from a first scoring line that needed to get on track and start tickling the twine, especially against a less skilled opponent with Exeter coming up this weekend. With the only benefit of watching on Livebarn not having to deal with the infamous Tritown arena smell, the partisans settled in for a post-jeopardy late game battle.

The first was a back and forth, back and forth.  Clearly Hanover had the speed and size advantage but was stymied at just about every turn.  In fact, it was Brady who scored first at 2:47 beating Luke Ives in close to go up 1-0.  But the announcer had not even finished crediting the winners before an Alex Rockmore feed to Curtis Rice whose wrister on net produced an in close rebound.  Casey Graham sitting in front calmly put back the rebound and there it was 1-1 heading into the first intermission.

The boys came out firing again in the second – leaving very little time with a pucks on the net play of Tom Lyons on a pass from Rockmore putting it on net from the point with Rice poaching in front to wrap around the rebound – 2-1 at 11:43.  But the not-so-jolly Green Giants fought back and made it a game at 8:01 putting in their own rebound in close to make it 2-2 while on the powerplay.  Hanover could not covert on a man-up of their own but at 2:56 it was Rockmore’s chance on the rebound, off a Graham shot with Lyons on the second assist to make it 3-2 at the end of two.

With the outcome in doubt, Hanover came out aggressively in the third, with Rockmore and Rice putting a cap on each of their three point nights with the best goal of the night nifty through pass across the crease for a tap-in by big red to make it 4-2 just 28 seconds in.  The bulk of the third for Hanover was spent killing off three penalties and facing a goalie pull but it was Graham capping off his three point night with an empty netter (I think it was – Live barn feed went out) to seal it as time ticked away.  Ives had 19 saves on the night.

So with the win, Hanover improves to 1-2 on the campaign and faces Exeter on Saturday night.  Exeter has beaten Trinity twice and fallen to evil empire BG 4-3 (BG beat Brady 11-4).  So on paper this should be a fairly well-matched game as the puck drops at 8:30 at the Rinks of Exeter.  And for those of you are interested, there is a Seacoast Spartans U-14 game at 8:30 Saturday night on the second rink at Exeter.  I heard those are fun to go to and the Spartans have a great team this year.  Might we see a large Hanover parent contingent at the Seacoast game?  Tempting isn’t it.

See you at the rink…