Confidence Builder

Some takeaways from this year’s Brian C. Stone Memorial Christmas tournament in Manchester as Hanover took the third game in pool play from Trinity 7-1 this afternoon…

1. Hanover’s freshman are bringing it – Casey’s first varsity goal, Curtis’s shining defense, Spencer’s formidable back check, Luke’s stoning Bedford, Ben putting everyone on his back – we are in good shape for the future Marauders fans
2. Coach Dodds’s assessment “We have incredible depth.  Today we ran 12 forwards, six D and two goalies. We are a better team now than when we started the tournament.”
3. (I swear this is true – first period) Apparently a referee in a high school game can challenge a heckling fan in the stands to meet him in the parking lot to fight after the game.  Who doesn’t love the Queen City!

So into the third day of pool play came the Marauders against the Trinity Pioneers, a longtime Division 1 foe who was the last team to defeat Hanover in a state championship game (2011).  After twice being the bridesmaid in games this week, on top of last Saturday’s divisional loss at BG, Hanover was sitting on a three game losing streak (3-1 NHIAA, 3-3 overall).  But coming into it today, it felt a lot better than it did Tuesday with the BG loss still smarting a little.  Either of those games against Concord or Bedford could have gone to Hanover with a little Marauder puck luck, and most importantly it was as if the boys became a team right in front of our eyes.  So as the viral illness that had gripped all of the fans this week started to remit (”Don’t worry boss, I just need the weekend to recover and I should be OK by Monday to be back in to work”) and everyone chuckled a little seeing all of those Massachusetts-plated cars spun out on 1-89 on the way down, game three began.

And it didn’t take long to see Hanover unleash their considerable firepower on Trinity goalie Ryan Brewitt.  The new line of Spencer Lawe/Carter Auch/Brendan Brigham put Hanover up front at 4:01 when Brigham forced a defensive zone turnover which found its way to Auch who then found Lawe alone in front to make it 1-0.  Less than two minutes later on the man-up, it was sizzling Patrick Daley again who tipped in a Sy Oberting blue line bomb on a pass from Matty Gardner to go up 2-0.  With that goal out went Brewitt and it was only a combination of Hail Marys, a thick crossbar and the steady play of new netminder Nick Infantino that kept the score at two goals heading into the intermission.

Period 2 was more of the same, as Cameron Woods opened the scoring on a right sided breakaway wrister off a beautiful outlet pass from Oberting from deep in the defensive zone at 1:25.  Goalie Ben Plottner had a brilliant reactionary kick save soon thereafter to preserve the three goal advantage and with fellow freshman Luke Ives taking over midway through the period, Hanover continued their dominant play.  A wrap around stuff from Gardner on the man-up made it 4-0 at 10:16 and as the horn sounded, the Pioneers probably would have rather been anywhere than Manchester, even stuck deep in the snowy Sierra Nevada range in Donner Pass, instead of facing another period from the hungry, man-eating Hanover boys.

But Trinity is a good team, a proud team and they had the better of play in the first few minutes of the the third making it 4-1 on an unassisted dipsy-do shot from Jimmy Kosiarski at 1:53.  But Hanover slowly cannibalized the Pioneers, as Gardner found Oberting at the point, who put down his cell phone showing the 147^th Livebarn rerun of his hit on Sylvain yesterday long enough to make it 5-1. Then in rapid succession it was Rowan Wilson sniper at 11:15 on an assist from Hans Williams with Graham finishing the scoring with a hard saucer in front for his first varsity goal on an assist from Auch.  7-1 final, and there goes the ref storming out to the parking lot.

The backstop tandem of Plottner/Ives finished with 14 total saves, but more importantly the entire weekend seemed to give the boys confidence heading into a midweek showdown with Exeter.  It will be a tough one, as Exeter already owns a win against BG this year.

So as the boys have the day off tomorrow to take down the tree and watch Notre Dame lose, they get ready for their New Year’s weekend date in Newark with the Devils.  Many thanks to coach Cashman for setting up this incredible opportunity and for the coaching staff taking the time away from their families to chaperone Hanover’s little devils.  And intentional or not, having the boys return late on New Year’s eve is a good way to prevent all of the questionable things (not to name any names Ms. Minarik) that their parents did when they were in high school on this night. For as a wise hockey sage once said “The boy on the ice, is not the boy in hot water.”  Happy New Year Marauder nation!