Signature Win

Maybe it was the built up energy after a long midterm exam period and nearly a week between games.  Perhaps it was playing their seventh game away from the friendly Campion confines.  Could have been the price gouging at the door with a $6 admission fee for a Saturday morning high school hockey game (BTW if the bathrooms weren’t so conveniently located for the spectators I might have balked at paying that much).  Might have been the delay in the long promised Hanover Hockey shwag from Jeff Graham (delivered today just in time – thanks Jeff!).  Whatever the reason, the Hanover Marauders came out firing today and with that effort earned a signature 3-2 win over the home Pinketron Astros to move to 4-2 in Division I NHIAA play and 6-3 on the season.

This was a critical game to win too because with the exception of the victory against Trinity, Dick Dodds’s Marauders had not had that signature win to move them forward in the standings.  Pinkerton was sitting just behind Hanover at 3-3 so these are the ones you must have come March at tournament time. So as we dodged the shoppers heading to Bass Pro Shops down the street, put on our sunglasses to dim down the white-out which is the walls at the Ice Den, and made sure we solemnly genuflected to the hung banners of the NH Avalanche who are rumored starting this year to be hanging up new individual banners in the Den commemorating each time one of their players reaches puberty, we settled in for a the game.  With one last look around to make sure there were no center ice cameras for the Astros to steal our signs, the puck dropped on a great high school hockey game just before noon.

And so Hanover got exactly what it needed when a forechecking Rowan Wilson dislodged the puck in the offensive third and squirted it out at the point to Curtis Rice pinching.  Big red hammered it home past Astros senior goaltender Matt Gilliland and at 1:59 we had the lead 1-0.  But it was not to last as Astro Brett Levesque pirouetted through three Hanover players before beating Ben Plottner high to make it 1-1.  The rest of the period was an intense back-and-forth but neither team really threatened and with Plottner holding tall stopping 12 shots, the period ended in a draw.

The second opened with Hanover applying most of the pressure, including a post for Augie Oberting.  But it was the Astros who struck first at 6:25 deep when Jake Masterson beat Plottner to make it 2-1.  Little did we know then that Plottner and his defense would clamp it down for the rest of the game.  Now facing a deficit, in a hostile arena against a good team, we got a little lucky when the first penalty call of the game went our way and on the man-up at 9:10 a Casey Graham shot into the scrum in front was retrieved by Jack Gardner finding your captain Toño Correa in close to knot it up at 2-2. And that is how it would end going into the third.

From the start, the third was clearly owned by Hanover, as first Jack Stadheim, Patrick Daley and Nashua South hero Cam Woods (crossbar) were stoned by Gilliland.  As the clock tipped down to the five minute mark it was the crafty Stadheim drawing a five minute major for boarding and putting Hanover on the power play for the remainder.  It was just a matter of time now but – ugh, unfortunate stick penalty 35 seconds in put the teams back at even strength for two minutes.  But how often does it happen – a little payback – as Stadheim came roaring down the slot and found sophomore John Hill on the wing at 12:22 for the game winner up high and just out of reach of the outstretched Gilleland.   Nice celly Mr. Hill BTW. With Plottner clamping down on the way to his 22nd save in the final minutes, the horn sounded to earn the win.  And as the deserved celebration around Plottner played out on the ice, rumor has it a NH Avalanche squirt player recently had his voice change, and thus we can look forward to another banner coming to the Ice Den soon.

Next up the hyphenated Nashua South-Pelhams come to town for a Monday evening game at Campion for chance to move to 5-2 in NHIAA.  However, we learned from last game Marauders that you never underestimate the hyphen.

See you at the rink…