Written by Press Release: January 27, 2014
January 25: Kearsarge 1 vs. Pleasant Valley 1 (Proctor Academy)
Saturday welcomed wind chills that hovered somewhere between 0 degrees and 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Inside, the rink was cold. I don’t know if the cold impacted the play, but both teams came out a little bit stiff. Okay maybe they came out a-lot-a-bit stiff.
The game was scoreless when third period action started. Almost half way through the final period, Kevin Kiernan pounced on a chance and pounded a slap shot up over the goaltender’s shoulder, just under the crossbar. The goal gave Kearsarge a 1-0 lead. The play was the finale to a long offensive puck possession, and was set up on passes from Marissa Pickman and Nicole Kimtis. The lead seemed to be enough, even at a single goal. For the balance of the game, Kearsarge gave up very few chances to the visiting from Vermont. Corey Henault, in net, Kiernan, Sebastian Beal, Ashley Thompson, and Alfie Rylander, on defense, gave little ground while disrupting nearly every visiting scoring attempt before it even materialized. Pickman, Kimtis, Matt Jarvis, Noah Newton, Kirsten Westerberg, and Nick Ducharme created some offensive chances throughout and also jammed passing lanes up and down the ice. There were not many chances to score for Pleasant Valley.
Looking back at the second period, a post-game poll of parents standing behind the net at that end of the rink confirmed that Pleasant Valley had indeed scored a goal that trickled over the goal line. However, when the official came to retrieve the puck it was covered up by the goal tender, in the crease. No goal was awarded. (This scenario may have happened to Kearsarge at Cardigan Mountain) The hockey gods keep track of this stuff.
Fast-forward to 4:58 left in the game when Pleasant Valley scored a good goal to tie the game at 1-1. The hockey gods, knowing all as it relates to the ups and downs of team play, maybe had a hand in the “leveling” of fortunes on Saturday. With the eventual goal scorer a full stride into the offensive zone before the puck entered the zone via a pass from the right-wing, the play was not whistled; instead the pass was completed to the center ice man who skated in and beat Henault to the glove side. Tight quarters, choppy play, and few chances prevailed down the stretch, and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.
I know one player (at least) that was upset with the outcome of the game, not because of calls, but because of the teams play. Looking back, I wouldn’t be surprised if several of his teammates felt the same way. 24 hours later, he was still confounded as to how they didn’t play better, and create a better result for themselves. That reminds me, February 8th, the team gets another shot at creating that desired result, at Pleasant Valley.
January 26: Kearsarge 2 vs. Plymouth 4 (Proctor Academy)
Sunday, Kearsarge was back at Proctor Academy to play host to Plymouth. Perhaps a sign of things to come started with some technical difficulties. The scoreboard was locked up, frozen (like a computer) to start, and time was kept in the booth for the 1st period. The home team too seemed a bit frozen to start as they fell behind 1-0 just 30 seconds into the game. Then, after just 7:15 of play, they trailed Plymouth 2-0. Then Kearsarge took back-to-back minor penalties, both of which were more an indictment on not skating as much as they were the act of committing the penalty. The first period would end with the same score, 2-0, and the home team still killing off a penalty.
Both penalties killed, and the scoreboard working again, Kearsarge awoke. The home team started skating, chances were created, penalties were drawn mostly because of this new idea they implemented, and they call it skating. Okay, sarcasm aside, the team who seemed content to watch Plymouth skate up and down the ice in the first period started moving and things really opened up. Finally, with 0:11 showing on the 2nd period clock, Alfie Rylander scored a goal to finish a brilliant play made by Noah Newton. First, Newton pushed the puck back to the left point where Ashley Thompson, to steal a figure skating term, ‘toe-picked’, and nearly sent herself headfirst in to the boards. Remaining calm, from her backside, Ashley played the puck with her stick on a valiant effort to keep the puck in the zone and pushed the puck back up the left-wing boards to Noah Newton. Newton then made a couple of skillfully gritty moves to get past a pair of defenders. He curled off of the left-wing corner boards towards the faceoff dot and ripped a pass across the doorstep to Rylander, who was in perfection position to slam the puck into the net. After two periods Kearsarge trailed 2-1 and what momentum there was, clearly favored the home team.
Kearsarge picked up where they left off, storming the Plymouth net with shots, and scoring chances. Some shots flew just wide, some were turned away by the goaltender, and one or two hit a post or crossbar. Then after a failure to make an easy clearing of the puck, Plymouth cashed in seconds later. Kearsarge had possession of the puck in their defensive end, on their stick, with control, and failed to clear it. The puck slid instead to the defenseman who made a quick pass to Plymouth’s best player, and with everyone expecting a shot he slid a pass to his winger for a near tap in goal. All that work, any momentum, gone, and Kearsarge faced a 3-1 deficit with almost 9 minutes left to play. 42 seconds later, Noah Newton struck again, this time he scored the goal after being set up by Alfie Rylander and Kirsten Westerberg. 3-2, Plymouth leading.
For the rest of the game, it felt like Kearsarge would surely get at least another goal, if not more. They created chance after chance but were unable to get the tying goal. Plymouth finally scored an empty-net goal with 8 seconds left to play. Final score 4-2 in favor of the visitors.