OT Thriller

Hanover needed this one over the Nashua North-Souhegan Saber Tigers today…

The Saturday afternoon before midterms, against a team whom on paper seemed overmatched (although they did own a victory over Bow), with the lines a little shuffled and the offense ready to explode having scored only one goal in the last 90 minutes of hockey.  A team still trying to find its identity and the catalyst that would hopefully propel them to the upper echelon of the NHIAA Division I standings coming in at 2-2 and in the middle of the pack.

And in a dominating fashion they got after it, and perhaps the hard Friday skate from coach Dodds and his staff lit that fire.  And they hammered and hammered the home team with 90% of play in the offensive zone. But all that effort was negated by one of the truest dogmas in hockey – it is really hard to beat a hot goalie.  And boy was Nashua goalie Eren Labonte hot tonight.

Because he got pummeled by the Marauders from the opening face-off.  With swarms of Marauders like hornets, the puck was constantly coming in on Labonte.  As the bean was moved from forward to forward and D to D, Labonte stood tall and did not break.  And every once in a while a Saber Tiger would break out, but Hanover net minder Ben Plottner was up to the task, especially on a point blank rope at 11:45.  Despite maintaining offensive zone pressure throughout the period, the shot totals were only 8-6 in Hanover’s favor, and the period ended in a 0-0 draw. 

However, it didn’t take long for the Lady Byng competition to end after a penalty free period from both sides, as Hanover found themselves on the man-down early.  They killed it, and continued to kill Labonte with shot after shot – in the period they would go on to outshoot the locals 17-1.  But as hard as they tried, they could not break through until the 11:17 mark when Jack Gardner picked off an errant Nashua pass at the blue line and found sophomore John Hill in the high near slot.  With a ten foot advance unchecked by Nashua goalward, Hill ripped a bar down glove high rocket making it 1-0 and finally making Labonte look human.

Into the third again on the man-down it went and, as everyone knows, in this game you need a little puck luck, as Nashua’s squeaker beat Plottner early in the period proved.  Knotted at 1-1 Hanover continued to pound on the beleaguered Saber Tigers (BTW – really?  Saber Tiger? At least not as lame as Raider Birds) but they would not yield and into overtime it went.  Now we were all a little nervous – tie? Loss?  But Matt Walsh wouldn’t have it as he stripped Nashua in the defensive zone and found defenseman Curtis Rice whose crafty cross-ice pass found a streaking Cam Woods on the right boards.  The human freight train then went right up on Labonte and with a Saber Tiger nipping at his heals, five-holed for the win at 3:30 into overtime.  Final 2-1.  Time to get the heck out of Nashua before it undergoes replay review which means no stopping at the new Chick-Fil-A.

So with the win, the Marauders find themselves at 3-2 in NHIAA Division 1 play and 5-3 overall.  Lots of movement all around in the standings with important games looming – one of the biggest coming up against Pinkteron this Saturday.

So study hard Marauders this week, pick C if you don’t know the answer, and remember the only thing worse than a final is a cumulative final. Good god I hope you don’t have any of those.

See you at the rink…