Ouch

This was going to be the coming out party for the 2019-20 Hanover boys’ varsity.  First real home game, Saturday night, big crowd, recent Hanover hockey royalty back from college with names like McNulty, Bardown Bailey, Williams, and Plottner.  Against a team with a long history of causing heartache for Hanover, most notably the crushing home playoff defeat in 2017 over the favored locals.  Yes, this was going to be a big one for Hanover against the Bishop Guertin Cardinals.  We had the Hanover hicks references ready, the out-of-state recruiting jokes loaded, etc, etc.  Yup all ready to go…and then the first period happened.

And in going up 2-0 in the first, in the face of really very few Hanover chances, you knew after the first period that this was just not going to Dick Dodds’s Marauders night.  Throw in an ineffective power play, two key defensive players on the IR, and some ill-timed defensive zone miscues and the 4-0 eventual score could have been worse.

But in a long season, there are going to be games like this one.  And as they sit at 2-1 in NHIAA play (4-2 overall), Hanover has a lot to be excited about moving forward into the meat of the schedule.  Lessons learned, move on, ready for Exeter for a late afternoon tilt on Wednesday at Campion.

See you at the rink…