Toe to Toe Part II

      There have been some pretty nasty lines in the annals of hockey – Lemieux/Jagr/Stevens or Hull/Hay/Balfour or Lehmann/Stadheim/Zinman but the one that sends the shivers down this blogger’s spine is the Roberto/Sylvain/Sanclemente trio that headlines this year’s version of the Bedford Bulldogs.   Experienced, battle tested, and fast – boy are they fast – the three seniors lined up for the first time in their high school farewell tour against the Marauders on the second day of the JFK tournament this afternoon which for Hanover would serve as another litmus test for their chances at defending their Division 1 NHIAA championship this March.

      Coming off their gut check performance in a 2-0 loss to Concord in the tournament’s first game, this was going to be a grudge match between the high flying Bedford first liners and the Hanover defense.  Memories are generally short-lived, but no one in the arena with any sense  of recent NH high school hockey history will forget Bedford’s wilted peroxide lettuce shuffling off the Verizon ice last March like FDA-recalled romaine with the underdog Marauders celebrating at center ice.  Throw in a freshman goalie making his varsity debut, and well yeah, the Bedford Bulldogs were ready.

      And in the first minute of the opening period, it seemed as if it was going to the Marauders who wilted, as Parker Roberto came charging up the near boards and rocketed one top shelf over goalie Luke Ives at 53 seconds to make it 1-0.  Tough to face a top shelf 70 mph wrister for your first varsity shot.  But Hanover settled down, and playing probably their best man-up of the season with lots of smart opportunities, freshman Curtis Rice found the twine past Bedford goalie Shea Guimont on assist an from suddenly hot Patrick Daley and Matty Gardner to knot it up at 1-1 at 4:15.  Not bad and now we had a game on our hands.  But again came the Bulldogs and after a dubious non-icing call that was so blatantly advantageous to the Bedford players that some might have thought Casey Kesselring himself was reffing the game, Jack Sylvain came in unimpeded to make it 2-1 at 14:07 and twisted the knife even deeper into the hearts of the Marauders faithful to score again at 14:53 to give a two goal advantage at the intermission.

      But as we have seen already in this young season, something happens in that Hanover locker room between periods 1 and 2 and the Marauders came out looking like a team with a major chip on their shoulder.  With Ives standing on his head time and time again, a pretty sequence from Toño Correa on the far wing finding Cameron Woods in the corner who found a rushing Daley in the slot to make it 3-2 at 5:30.  And just like that the Marauders were taking it to them and going up on the man-up later in the period, Rice to Daley to Gardner on the power play made it 3-3 at 11:25.  In what was probably their best period of the year, Hanover took it to Bedford and showed that this year’s version of the Bulldogs, and their nasty first line, is beatable.

      So just like yesterday’s contest against Concord in which everyone knew the first goal of the third would decide the winner, out came the two rivals armed to bear.  Just in case they hadn’t yet been introduced, Sy Oberting made sure to make acquaintances with Sylvain at mid-ice early in the third, a friendly nudge that perhaps will show up on upcoming Spittin’ Chiclets video blog over at Bartsool.  So as Hanover pounded and pounded on Guimont and Bedford returned the favor against Ives, these two underclass net minders proved their mettle to keep the score at 3-3.  On it went until a questionable (perhaps make up) call on the Bulldogs on a too many men had Hanover sitting pretty with four minutes left.  And as so often has been said in close hockey games, it takes a little puck luck sometimes to win and with all of the momentum in Hanover’s favor, it was Sylvain on the penalty kill who back-handed a high archer just over the outstretched hand of Oberting at the point to a waiting Roberto at the red line who came in alone on Ives at 11:02 to ice the game.  An empty netter to give Roberto the hat trick and that was all she wrote - 5-3 Bulldogs.

     But this was a great game to watch, and a great step forward for Hanover.  They outshot the Bulldogs, and Ives proved he belongs with a 25 save performance.  Most importantly, the Marauders have now faced three of the toughest teams standing in their path to a repeat title and with the exception of a little softness against BG (which Sy probably erased in his two hit third period sequence) they proved they are a very good, deep team that can beat anyone. And it’s not even these games that matter, it’s the ones later in the year come January, February and March.

      Tomorrow afternoon the Upper Valley boys conclude their participation in the Brian C. Stone tournament with a showdown against Trinity at 2:00 p.m.  Hopefully the flu-like illnesses continue so everyone can be there and skip work. Then it’s off to Newark for a two day vacation – probably the first time the words Newark and vacation have been ever used in the same sentence.  See you tomorrow.