Campion Win

Driving in to today’s NHIAA Division I hockey clash between the Hanover Marauders and Manchester Memorial Crusaders, one could tell change was afoot in the Upper Valley.  Whether it was the Prius with a Trump 2020 sticker and Vermont plates parked in front of Dan and Whit’s, the Dartmouth student who crossed East Wheelock in the crosswalk off of their phone and gave a polite wave of thanks as they hustled to not tie up traffic, or a movie that actually looked worth watching advertised on the Hopkins Center marquee, something seemed a little different.  And walking into Campion confirmed all of the suspicions as the Marauders had gone goofy foot and were on the visitor’s bench for the start of this critical game. 

And you knew the wily Hanover coaching staff needed to do something, anything, because with a goal drought now spanning over two complete games, the locals were getting desperate.  Perhaps shooting for two periods at exercise bikes behind the glass rather than scowling hockey moms and dads living vicariously through their high school children would shake things up for the Marauders.  Throw in line changes that featured more of a twist than the former housekeeper returning to get something she forgot from the Park’s basement (see this year’s Best Picture winning film for esoteric reference) and we had hope for some goals this afternoon.

And as usual, Dick Dodds and his coaching staff pulled all of the right strings as the locals  came away with a 3-1 victory to run their record to 8-5 (10-6 overall) and keep pace with the rest of the upper tier of the division.  With Cool Hand Luke Ives between the pipes, the Marauders came out clearly with a chip on their respective shoulders and hammered Crusader netminder Mason Langevin from the opening horn.  But as has often been the case this season, the visitor’s post seemed to have a magnetic attraction to the puck with Hanover clanging two during the opening period. It was not until freshman Jack Stadheim took a puck deep in his own defensive zone and brought it up the far boards beating two defenders before slipping a cross-ice beauty to Curtis Rice waiting on the door step for the tap-in.  With Rice’s goal and the ensuing no holds barred celly at 14:26, the Hanover goal drought ended at nearly 105 minutes.

Into the second it went and almost immediately it seemed like this was going to be a rout when Spencer Lawe on the point found Brendan Brigham deep whose pass in the slot to John Hill (always seems to be in front of the net doesn’t he?) rifled in a shot on Langevin that rebounded back to him for a blast to make it 2-0 just 48 seconds in.  Now another change that clearly was evident tonight was this was much more of a physical game for the Marauders – almost like tonight they earned the right to wear those tims on their feet.  Lots of aggressive hits both on the fore-check and in the defensive zones.  However, while making for some entertaining spectating, the locals did get whistled for their sins, even going down on a 5-3 which left them vulnerable to a Crusader goal to make it 2-1 at 9:13.  But back and forth it went until it was Rice finding Cam Woods in deep whose outlet to Jack Gardner was sent in on a prayer from the blue line and at 11:46 it was 3-1.

The third was just what you would expect from two teams who clearly had forgotten the lessons of love and harmony from the day before.  Big hits, some injuries, likely some insights shared among the boys about their affection for their respective moms and when it was over, Luke Ives had another great game with 11 saves and the boys walked off with the victory outshooting the Crusaders by 48 shots. A crucial win and a gritty win. Some walking wounded too that we hope are going to be OK for the stretch drive.

So with the victory over the Crusaders, Hanover heads into a four game stretch of Concord, Exeter, Trinity and Bedford that will determine final seeding with the NHIAA playoff looming.  Let’s hope the extra time off on the school vacation week allows for some healing and can’t wait to see what changes are in the works for Concord on Wednesday.

See you at the rink…