Heart Pounding Win

      Having never been allowed to coach above the Travel Mite level by the HHA board, I can’t say for sure what drives high level hockey coaches the most crazy.  I imagine a turnover when skating the puck out of the defensive zone instead of passing to the forwards is pretty annoying.  I always wonder what goes through the coach’s mind when he is trying to make a point during a break in play and can’t hear himself think over the crappy AC/DC from 1974 (keep it coming by the way Sean - especially It’s a Long Way to the Top if you Want to Rock & Roll – best hockey song ever – bagpipes bringing Malcom and Angus back to their Scottish roots) – probably pretty annoying.  I won’t even get into hockey parents questioning their little Johnny’s playing time.  But I imagine if there is one thing that is universal amongst all high level hockey coaches, it is the dumb penalty, the game-changing dumb penalty, that has them reaching for their in-game nitro.  And in today’s game between the 4^th place Hanover Marauders and the 5^th place trinity Pioneers, coaches Dodds and Connell probably used their Nitro so much that they’ll be booking an appointment with their cardiologist tomorrow.

      Because tonight was a big game – a really big game.  It was a rubber match between two teams that had split already this year – Hanover winning 7-1 in the Christmas tournament and Trinity paying back the favor 5-2 a week ago in their barn.  It was a game that had many implications – seeding implications, respect implications, rivalry implications.  So, as the Pioneers made their trek up 1-89 for a mid-week tilt in front of a small but vocal Campion rink crowd, everyone knew that it was either going to be the Marauders avenging an ugly Sullivan rink disaster from last week, or Trinity making a huge statement knocking off the defending state champions.

     It was Hanover that came out ripping on Pioneer goalie Ryan Brewitt who stoned the hungry locals on every attempt.  And just when it seemed like Hanover would be finding the twine at any moment, a five minute major boarding penalty – a killer in high school hockey because a goal does not wipe out the penalty – put Hanover on the man down.  Now a boarding penalty is not a bad penalty per se, but doesn’t actually make you the guest of honor at the next penalty kill unit dinner party.  But one thing Hanover is really good at doing is killing penalties, and with the forwards buzzing around like Cape Cod marsh flies on a summer night and the defense holding steady, Hanover killed off the Pioneer charge until his team caused coach Connell to reach for the first Nitro of the night.  Because in succession, on the man-up, Trinity committed two hooking penalties to go from a 5-4 for five minutes to a 3-4 and then a 4-4.  Ouch.  And with that, all of the momentum shifted back to Hanover and on the power play it was Duncan Bailey, from Spencer Lawe, firing in from the point with Charlie Plottner deflecting at 14:01 to put Hanover up 1-0 heading into the first intermission.

      And it didn’t stop there because almost as soon as they came out for the second, Hanover went up 2-0 with Pat Daley finding Cam Woods on a deflection just 57 seconds in.  Now came time for the all important third goal and as Ben Plottner (16 saves) preserved the net for the locals, older brother Charlie found Matty Gardner at the point whose wrister at 5:40 in made it 3-0.  A big old sigh of relief, not even when Trinity finally beat Plottner to make it 3-1 at 9:12.  The locals continued to pepper Brewitt, who even took one off of the mask from Joey Goff point blank (dam you Jacques Plante!) until Brendan Brigham took it upon himself on a goal of the year candidate score to seemingly send Trinity to purgatory.  On a full out fore-check, Brigham stripped the puck down low and through a sheer force of will we haven’t seen since a lacrosse face-off, he dusted three Pioneers and stuffed it into the back of the net to make it 4-1 heading into the third.

      But Trinity came out embarrassed, and perhaps feeling guilty about sending their coach to have a heart cath tomorrow, almost immediately they took advantage a neutral zone turnover and a trip to make it 4-3 not even four minutes into the third.  And now with the Pioneers salivating and tasting blood like it was dinnertime at the Donner’s house (I just can’t stop making that joke), Hanover found themselves suddenly on the defensive.  But just like in the first period, it was a killer Trinity penalty that doomed them, because putting Hanover on the man-up deep in the third had Casey Graham finding the net in a scrum on an assist from Sy Oberting to make it 5-3 at 11:48.  An empty netter by Graham completed the scoring at 14:11 and Hanover had their 6-3 win.

      So now Hanover finds itself at 9-2 in NHIAA play (10-4 overall) with a few key games coming up – including a late Saturday night game a tough Salem team (just breathing the air coming north from Methuen makes you mean) that may have some of our boys spitting their own chiclets by night’s end.  By the way boys, there are discounts on swivels at Home Depot this week and directions are included on how to attach to your head.  Then it is Concord next Wednesday – no intro needed.  See you at the rink.