EXETER — The Hanover players spilled onto the ice in triumph. Most of the Exeter players looked away in disbelief.
After over 50 minutes of tooth-and-nail hockey, there was a real sense of finality on the carved up ice at The Rinks at Exeter.
Turns out, these two teams have plenty more to play for. Hanover clinched its own playoff berth. With a little outside help Wednesday, the Blue Hawks clinched theirs for the first time since 2011.
That news broke hours after Exeter’s 2-1 loss in overtime to the Marauders (9-8), a team that opened the season at 1-8 and has now won eight straight, tearing its way into the Division I playoff picture.
“We’ve been in the playoffs since Jan. 10, is what we decided,” Hanover coach Dick Dodds said. “I think the kids are starting to believe.”
The Blue Hawks (8-8-1) have been clutching and grabbing for that type of momentum. They seemed to find it with a three-game win streak earlier this month. Now, they’ve dropped three of four entering Saturday’s regular season finale back up at Hanover.
They can't drop farther than the 10th and final playoff seed, thanks to Londonderry's loss to Bedford Wednesday — but it’s possible they’ll find themselves at No. 10 with another loss. They’ll have to find a way to slow a powerful Hanover team that owned a 45-14 shots advantage in Wednesday's game.
“We didn’t have shots, but we had plenty of chances,” Exeter coach Jim Tufts said, “and we didn’t make the most of it and they did. At the end of the day, I think that’s the final result, not the shots, not anything else. I think at the end of the day it was — who made the most of their scoring chances?”
The Blue Hawks had a hard time getting the puck to Hanover goalie Lukas Ratliff. It took, in part, a 22-save effort from Bryson Desjardins in the second period alone to hold a 1-0 deficit entering the third.
But Exeter stayed with the fight until seconds remained. It scored the equalizer when Tim Faulkner fired a puck from the blue line that was blocked and kicked around at the top of the crease.
Eventually, it deflected out wide to Exeter sophomore Corbin Cashman, who fought his way to the net and all but willed the puck through Ratliff’s pads and across the goal line. There was so much traffic that Cashman had to discard a Hanover defenseman before he could skate to the back boards and throw himself against the glass in celebration.
The goal, with 55 seconds remaining in regulation, tied the game 1-1. For all the time that Hanover possessed the puck — the goal that was disallowed because the net was off its moorings early in the third period — it didn't matter. The Blue Hawks were headed to overtime with a chance to steal one on Senior Day.
“I said to the boys in the locker room before the game, some of these kids have played 40, 60 games for me,” Tufts said of the seniors, “and they tee it up and they play hard every day. I wanted them to get rewarded for it.”
Instead, with time winding down in overtime, it was star forward Ben Acker who spoiled the party with an unassisted rush to the net. The clock showed 2:16 remaining when the puck slid through Desjardins.
“A lot of teams, if they give up a goal like that, they have a hard time refocusing and regrouping, and realizing it’s still a game,” Dodds said. “I’m proud of our kids. They stayed with it.”
Desjardins was credited with 34 saves over the first two periods and 43 in the game. He nearly saved it for seniors Andrew Stephens, Casey Marfongelli, Christian Stone, Hanrik Barbin, Garrett Pietz and Reed Allen on their final day at The Rinks.
But they'll have another game, both Saturday and beyond.
“Give Exeter credit, because, boy, they’re a hard team to play against,” Dodds said. “They have powerful forwards. (Stephens) is a terrific defenseman, and the goaltender was tough to beat.”
