Astros Take Down

There are times you wonder if it worth it…4:30 alarm wake-ups three days per week, getting home from what seems like the 110th road game in a row down in Manchester at 11:30 pm on a school night, being told over and over that you can’t hang with the big boys down South, that you have freshman goalies, that big bad Pinkerton is coming with their PA mafia flag and clown hair.  On a night when at least half of your team is inflicted with a flu like illness and finals start in 36 hours.

And then the game starts and you say to yourself – yup going to be a tough one as these Astros are about as tough as their MLB AL West compatriots (not the circa 2012 version mind you but the more recent Jose Altuve version) with the hits they are laying out in the first two minutes.  But then your captain #20 comes flying in behind the net on a forecheck and gets absolutely walloped and it’s right then, right there that you have a choice.  You stay down or you will yourself up and get back on the backcheck.  And maybe it’s Duncan Bailey out of the corner of his eye seeing Hans shake off that hit and with a captain’s leadership start the backcheck and says to himself, no more, not here, not on Saturday night, not in my house.   Boom!  And with that absolute crushing check, it was as if #10 took the lead and said to the visitors  “Welcome to Hanover, NH Astros and thanks for coming. Now you’re about to see why we are defending state champions and why you’re about to be knocked out of first place.”

So into a packed Campion arena came the league leading Pinkerton Astros with their gaudy 7-0 record taking on the corn fed Hanover hicks who came in at 5-1 (6-3 overall) in NHIAA play.  Once those first two minutes had ended and Hanover had decided to meet aggression with even more aggression of their own, it was Dick Dodds’s Marauders who were able to survive the slugfest with the 3-2 victory.  This was not a pretty win, but boy was it sweet.

In the first period, back and forth it went, with each team surviving man-ups and each team’s goalie, senior Dakota Robinson for Pinkerton and Marauder freshman (yes, hard to believe he is only a freshman) Ben Plottner, standing on their heads to keep it knotted at 0-0 going to deep into the stanza.  But first lines are first lines for a reason and in a bang-bang sequence, it was Cameron Woods finding an onrushing Pat Daley whose in close banger rebounded off of Robinson to a charging Charlie Plottner who calmly buried it stick side to make it 1-0 at 10:13.  Hanover almost made it 2-0 after freshman Spencer Lawe was tripped breaking in on goal and the subsequent Marauder power play had more chances than a game of Monopoly.  But Robinson was a rock and as the period wound down to 0, Hanover was whistled for a too many men penalty that would leave them starting the second on the man-down.

So maybe this was in coach Dodds’s playbook because on the kill, just 25 seconds into the second, it was Daley forechecking like Patrice Bergeron and causing an Astro defensive zone turnover that lead to a nifty pass to Woods in the high slot whose one timer made it 2-0.  Between the huge hits being laid out by both sides, it was the aggressive Hanover offensive forecheckers that kept the Astros busy as they tried to bore down on Plottner and his virus-laded defenders.  Eventually it was Pinkerton senior John Last at 13:56 who scored the game’s all important third goal to cut it to 2-1 going into the final frame.

So here we are again in the third up a goal.  The defense is exhausted, injuries are starting to pile up, the social studies midterm is on Monday, the Chiefs are beating the Colts, Pine Park is going to close for a year, Jim Kenyon still has a job throwing anything associated with Hanover/Norwich/Lyme/Dartmouth College/DHMC under the bus – life is bad.  We needed a goal and we needed a little puck luck.  At 6:43 we got it as the Astros were whistled for a high stick.  In came the power play unit and with Daley finding Matty Gardner on the reverse umbrella behind the net, it was his shot  that rebounded off of Robinson to Sy Oberting whose dagger into the net caused the most pain to the PA Mafia since Vito Corleone collapsed in his garden.

But it wasn’t over yet because you don’t get to be in first place in NHIAA Division 1 with a 3-1 win over Concord under your belt by folding.  A blazing Astros rush down the near side cut the lead to 3-2 with five minutes left and from then on in Pinkerton just brought it.  But for the last five minutes it was the Ben Plottner show, who proved that stick-optional goaltending is not so hard and with the number of his awesome kick saves without the benefit of a hockey stick you would have thought he was a wussy soccer player and not a hockey stud.  Carrying his upper classman teammates down the stretch, Plottner’s 21 saves sealed the win.

With the final horn, Hanover had survived.  A little dinged up and sucking down the Tamiflu like Gatorade on the drive home, but they had just knocked off the last untied, undefeated team in Division 1.  Seems like a long time ago that game in Tyngsboro, huh Marauder fans?

With the win, Hanover and Pinkerton join Concord in second place with 1 loss records, trailing only Bedford which owns an early season tie with Londonderry as their only hiccup.  Next up is 5-2-1 Windham, a very strong team making their Division 1 debut, on Saturday afternoon at Campion.  Good luck on the finals Marauders – remember there is no penalty for guessing and choose C if you don’t know the answer as we need all of you academically eligible for the playoffs.  See you at the rink.

Dynamite Win

A dank January afternoon during back-from-vacation week.  Playing right after a rare defeat for the Girls Marauders team.  World Juniors final still hours away (BTW make sure you leave your broken sticks at home next year team Canada – HAHAHAHAHAHA enjoy the couch). Facing a 2-4 Nashua North team after playing a relentless four game stretch of top Division 1 squads in the last two weeks.  The Hanover Marauders were at risk for sleepwalking into today’s afternoon tilt before a large partisan Campion crowd.

And making things even worse, Hanover (with two talented freshman net minders of their own) ran into a hot goalie in the form of Titan freshman goalie Jack Casey who put on a virtuoso performance in the face a hefty three-period Hanover assault.  When it was over however, Hanover had a 5-0 win to make it 5-1 in NHIAA play (6-3 overall) on the 2018-19 campaign.

It was junior Rowan Wilson who had the best early chance when a point blank mid slot wrister sailed high at 1:10. Right on its heels, Sy Oberting was stoned at 2:42 after a quick rush from the left side.  Archer Judd, playing in his first varsity game as a JV call-up, came close several times on wrap arounds early on.  Finally, Hans Williams seemingly put the locals up first at 5:14 but had his in close corn hit called back on a very appropriate goalie interference call.  It was really the Jack Casey goalie show until Will Laycock’s hard saucer from the right circle on a pass from Oberting at 11:26 made it 1-0.  Amherst?  Williams? Talk to the hand – this goal was stellar.  Going into the intermission up 1-0 the question was how long could Casey hold out against the hungry Marauders bearing down on him at every shift.

Into the second it went with Hanover goalie Ben Plottner making two big saves, one on a Titan player’s dangler, to maintain the one goal advantage.  When Nashua was whistled for a defensive glove cover-up resulting in a penalty shot, Matty Gardner proved the maxim “even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes” and put Hanover up 2-0.  With his ankles sore from Gardner’s shootout deke, Casey became a bit more vulnerable and it was Laycock scoring the second goal of his varsity career in close on helpers from Brendan Brigham and Sam Seelig soon thereafter at 11:01 to put the Marauders up 3-0 going into the third.

The “blondy backhander” (thank you for the reference former captain McNulty) Williams lived up to his nickname with a goal-of-the-year candidate backhand roofer unassisted at 2:59.  Finally it was Oberting from the high slot off a face-off win from Gardner on the man-up to finish the scoring 5-0.  It was only through a sheer force of will that Casey was able to keep it at 5-0, most notably on an absolutely stunning glove save on Joey Goff high right deep in the third.

Plottner finished with 12 saves for the Marauders.  Said coach Dick Dodds afterwards “How about Will Laycock?  Hard worker, high energy, big motor, a ball of dynamite.”

Next up for the Marauders is the 6-0 Pinkerton Astros next Saturday at 5:30 at Campion.  The Astros own a 3-1 win over Concord already this year and have been somewhat overlooked in the scuttlebutt around the best NHIAA teams.  Unlike Team Canada whose performance in the world juniors was the worst performance by a Canadian since the last time Justin Bieber tried to sing, expect the Hanover boys to be prepared and bring it next Saturday night (you have to get the digs in where you can against Team Canada).  See you at the rink.

By the way for all of you mom's out there, don't worry.  It's amazing what a semester of college and a trip to the barbers can do for a Hanover hockey player's appearance - see below.

 

Cool Hand Luke

      There have been some pretty great performances by people named Luke over the years – Skywalker in Episodes V and XIII, Perry as Dylan McKay, Duke when he boxed Catfish Lee to save Uncle Jesse and Daisy’s farm, Bryan any time he’s in Nashville, Cool Hand with Paul Newman in his second best ever movie role…you get the point.  But tonight at the Rinks of Exeter with the Hanover Marauders boys hockey team facing a pretty significant test against a very strong Exeter Blue Hawks team, another Luke was added to the list of great performances.

      Freshman goalie Luke Ives, called into emergency service just 2:29 into the first period when starting net minder Ben Plottner suffered an equipment malfunction, came in and absolutely dominated Exeter en route to a 14 save performance in Hanover’s 4-1 victory.  With the win, Hanover moved to 4-1 in NHIAA play (5-3 overall) and sent a message to the rest of the league that the Marauders TEAM is ready for the January/February grind.

      Veteran coach Dick Dodds put it simply after the game when he said “Today was the Luke Ives show. He was unflappable and cool as a cucumber.  He really had no chance to warm up and stood tall.  He played exceptionally well.” Dodds was especially complementary to Ives in citing his lack of rebounds that allowed the Hanover defense to keep the aggressive Exeter fore-check contained throughout the game.

      With Hanover seeming to have the fresher legs throughout the contest despite the two hour drive from the Upper Valley, the local boys started the scoring at 7:39 when Charlie Plottner put home a rebound off a Sylas Oberting blast (Cam Woods) past Exeter goalkeeper Jude Rogles. It stayed 1-0 until early in the second when Patrick Daley deflected in a Woods shot from the point on another feed from Oberting shorthnaded at 2:38 to put all of the momentum in Hanover's favor.  After a massive penalty kill from the Marauders who were guilty of an uncharacteristic 4 penalties on the night, Hans Williams made it 3-0 at 7:57 on assists from Rowan Wilson and Joey Goff.  Hanover finished its scoring with Goff tallying in close on a feed from Matty Gardner at 14:48.  It was only a strong individual effort from Exeter forward Brendan Doyle that beat Ives high late in the third to spoil the shutout.

     Four different goal scorers for Hanover, offensive back checkers working so hard that you would think the Selke was on the line, intimidating defense breaking up numerous chances in the neutral zone, everyone looking out for each other – a complete team win.  Jump on the bus, pass the Jaguar dealership across from the rink and ask yourself how that ended up there, get started on the hefty day-back-from-vacation homework deluge and start thinking about what could happen with this TEAM moving forward.

      Saturday the Marauders, who seemingly have been away from home about as long as Odysseus, continue their odyssey against Nashua North for the first of three successive weekend home games.  See you at the rink.