We'll take it

Coming in to tonight’s unusual Monday evening tilt at Campion against the Nashua South-Pelham Panthers, the Hanover Marauders were riding high with a two game winning streak after a signature come-from-behind win against Pinkerton two days prior.  They were playing on paper an overmatched hyphen, in front of the home crowd, with Carter Auch recovered from his injury and back on the ice. But hockey, probably more than any other sport, is a game in which you can’t mail it in, and tonight Hanover got lucky with a 2-1 come-from behind after a sloppy, penalty-filled performance in the ultimate trap-game situation.

With sophomore Luke Ives in the net and running four lines to start, it became clear from the beginning that this was going to be a tough one for Dick Dodd’s Marauders.  It was Ives who kept them from falling behind early, as the Panthers seemed to own the better of play in the first.  In fact, the best Hanover chance came just as time expired to end the period, with Hanover banging one off of the post as the horn sounded.

However, any momentum that the Marauders had going into the second was nullified almost instantly when Chris Skelley walked one in on a lax Hanover D less than  a minute in to go ahead 1-0.  Despite several good in-close attempts by Hanover, it was goalie Nate Serrentino who kept the locals off of the board.  And uncharacteristically, Hanover was whistled for two more penalties in the period to go along with one in the first.  However, in the category of “it doesn’t matter how it goes in as long as it does” senior Brendan Brigham loosed up the bean enough in the front to find Cam Woods whose shot deflected off of Serrentino into the air and then fell backwards off the goalie’s back into the net to tie it at 1-1 11:48 in.

In the third, Nashua kept coming, and two penalties by Hanover – including a five minute major with 6:34 left – helped to keep the score tied at 1-1.  Fortunately for Hanover, a bench minor kept the 5-4 Nashua advantage at just over two minutes.   And as the clock ticked town under five minutes, Jack Stadheim won the offensive zone face-off back to Tom Lyons.  Lyons’s wrister was deflected downwards by a screening Pat Daley for the game winner – 2-1.  With Ives clamping down ,including a monster scrum as time ran out, Hanover went on to win its third in a row to go to 5-2 in NHIAA division 1 play and 7-3 on the season.

So, an ugly win…but any win is a positive.  And as the Marauders look forward to back-to-back trips down the 1-93 corridor to Windham and Londonderry upcoming this week, they have the chance to continue their climb up the standings, hoping for that important home playoff game come March.  Then it’s Trinity, Salem, and Concord in that order – it’s going to be fun.

See you at the rink…