STATE OF OUR UNION

      While some in the Upper Valley stayed home believing that Tuesday’s big event of the night was the State of the Union address, those in the know came to watch the now first place Hanover Marauders defeat the previously undefeated Pinkerton Astros in a thriller at Campion Rink 3-1.  As the debate raged about whether or not America was being made great again, there was no denying the greatness of this Marauder win, especially a first period that had Hanover outshooting Pinkerton 19-1.

The First Place Hanover Marauders

      The Marauders came into the game on a four game win streak with big victories over BG, Exeter and most recently Trinity this past weekend.  The Astros had an even bigger streak, coming in at 10-0 including an 8-4 win over Bedford.  As the largest independent day school in the United States with 3,100 students, Pinkereton was the Goliath to Hanover’s David, Muncie Central to Hanover’s Milan High (look it up), or even Dan Devine to our Rudy Ruettiger (look that one up too). 

      However, the problem with the underdog analogy is that Dick Dodds’s team this year is good – really good.  In addition, while floating the lines about the country bumpkins going against the big boys may have worked in early December, Hanover has proven their mettle over and over again and thus this blogger is going to need to come up with some new game themes moving forward.

      With a large crowd watching including Hanover hockey royalty with names like Peraza, Bensen, and Redpath in the crowd, you knew this one was big.  And apparently so did the Marauders.  If you were standing on the scoreboard side of the rink for the first period, I hope you weren’t myopic because the puck lived in the Astro’s defensive zone for nearly the full 15 minutes.  Astros goalie Dakota Robinson probably felt like he was in the Badlands the way Hanover peppered him nearly continuously throughout the period.  Inside, outside, tips  - everything was coming at him.  But, it is really hard to stop Owen Stadheim, and just as he did against Trinity over the weekend, the sophomore center put Hanover ahead 2-0.  The first goal was a scrum after Sy Oberting’s blast from the point was redirected to Toño Correa towards the goal and Stadheim’s quick backhand beat Robinson low at 6:30.  At 12:06, Stadheim again found the net on a feed in front from David Lehmann on another assist from Oberting.  With several more good chances to end the period, the locals had outshot Pinkerton 19-1 by the time the horn sounded.

      But Pinkerton was not in first place because they are not talented, and the second period was really a back and forth between two heavyweights slugging it out in front of a lively crowd.  This was the period when goalie Harris LaRock carried the Marauders, turning away every one of the feisty Astros efforts including a penalty kill that seemed to last more like 6 minutes rather than the usual two.  With Hanover’s defense led by senior Braxton McNulty seemingly running on fumes, Hanover escaped back to locker room #4 holding on to a precarious 2-0 lead.

      As has been mentioned before in this blog, the third goal is often viewed as the most important in hockey and everyone in the crowd knew this going into the final frame.  At 5:50 gone by, Pinkerton finally found the net – the first goal given up by the Marauders in 10 periods of hockey – when senior Patrick Hare slipped one by LaRock.  Now the sprint was on and as the Astros slowly ground down the local boys as they uncharacteristically found themselves on a multiple penalty kills, Hanover needed a big play.  Enter junior Charlie Plottner.  Plottner, who had spent most of the evening up until this point making lunch dates with the Astros defenders on scrums in front, received a pass from Rowan Wilson behind the net on the man-up for Hanover at 11:53.  Sometimes it helps to have a goalie as a little brother, because in a tricky move he probably learned in the driveway against little brother Ben, he stepped from behind the net and bounced the puck off of Robinson’s back into the net.  Good night Astros, and no more lunch dates at that.

      As seems to be the case in most of these close Hanover wins, the hero was LaRock.  But credit needs to go to the aggressive Marauder fore-check, including JV call-up Patrick Daly, who kept the Astros pinned for much of the game in their defensive zone.  And the defense played a stellar game in fronting LaRock – it’s hard to know whether it was the Hanover blueliners or the Washington political blowhards (both sides of the aisle) who worked harder on this night.

      So with the win, Hanover ups its record to 11-1 (14-2 overall) in NHIAA play and sits alone in first place in Division 1.  They return to the ice Saturday with their only game this year against 1-9 Manchester Central. Game time is 4:30 in the Queen City.