Hockey: Alvirne 6 at Goffstown 10

It was a long time coming, but everyone was there to celebrate! In his 61st career game, a good, two-way, defenseman, got his first career goal. (Photo by Charron)

The Goffstown Grizzlies hockey team played host to the Alvirne Broncos last night at St. Anselm College. On paper, the standings and previous results pointed to this as a blowout type game, dare say, and easy win for the Grizzlies. See Alvirne entered play with a record of three wins and twelve losses, while Goffstown entered play with twelve wins and two losses. In the end, the Grizzlies prevailed by a score of 10-6, but there were a few different sides to this story.

Grady Chretien came out flying on Thursday night, scoring a natural hat trick in the opening 4:22 of the game. (Photo by Charron)

In an after school special type of story line, the mighty powerhouse of a team that works hard to achieve their results comes into the contest as the heavy favorite. Meanwhile the team with little success and the poor record comes in as the underwhelming underdog. The strong team starts out great, and works hard to get early success in the contest. They distance themselves from their opponent by executing their game plan over and over, while skating hard, and playing as a team. Because the results are still largely favoring the stronger team, maybe they haven’t even noticed that their opponent’s commitment and resolve is greater than they gave them credit for. Then, the favorite lets off of the gas, mentally, physically, or both, and all of the sudden the gap that they thought was wide and insurmountable, turns out to be nothing much at all. The opponent had already raised their game and now the tides had turned, as they always do. Sometimes the tides catch us off guard more than other times.

Madeline Sage and Eric DesRuisseaux look to defend the Grizzlies den. (Photo by Charron)

Kyle LaSella looks for a faceoff against Alvirne. He made 7 of 7 saves on the night. (Photo by Charron)

Then, the pride felt from the execution of game play at a higher level than most, turns to a different feeling. Maybe panic, or disgust, or frustration because it’s not as easy to start the powerful engine as it is to keep it running. When blame enters the picture then certainly we know that the finger pointed, pales in comparison to the fingers aimed back at the one doing the blaming. In the end, the favored team wins, but not without some pain and suffering which hopefully carries a lesson learned. The underdog teaches all of us for the millionth upon millionth time because we seem to forget this lesson often, to never give up and to keep trying regardless of where logic may rate your chances. As if sport, in and of itself, doesn’t teach us enough about how narrow the line is between winning and losing, then a game like this certainly should. To operate as a team, above that fine line that separates the teams who win from the teams that just fall short, is to play in rarefied air and is never to be assumed that it is just available whenever we want to get there. So, with all of that said, let’s get to the action.

Melanie Riendeau defends against Justin Carbonneau and the Alvirne Broncos on Thursday night at St. A’s. (Photo by Charron)

Sebastian Beal scored the team’s 100th goal of the season during the 1st period of last night’s win over Alvirne. (Photo by Charron)

It’s not always easy to show up and put your best foot forward, especially when everyone expects absolutely nothing less. The Grizzlies though, they were ready to play. Freshman, Grady Chretien scooped up an errant wrap around attempt by the Broncos, skated to the high slot and scored through the five hole for Goffstown, just 1:58 into the game. Then in a span of two minutes and twenty-four seconds, Chretien completed a natural hat trick and gave Goffstown a 3-0 lead. Chretien’s first goal was unassisted. His second goal, on the power play, came off of a rebound from a shot that was taken out high by Colby Gamache after a lead pass to Gamache was made by Brett Lassonde. Then he nabbed his third goal of the night on a beautiful set up by Theo Milianes from behind the net and Brett Branscum who hustled in a won a puck in a corner battle. Sebastian Beal made it 4-0 at 7:30 of the period on the power play. Max Lajeunesse whistled a wrist shot high and wide of the net, but Noah Charron was there to collect the rebounds off of the glass and feed it to Beal at the goal mouth for the goal. It was also the 100th goal scored by the Grizzlies this season. A couple of minutes later Beal added his 18th goal of the season to make it 5-0 Goffstown. Noah Charron wrestled a puck away from the defender, spun, and fed a pass to Beal who finished the play with the goal. At the end of the first period, Goffstown led 5-0 and also had 13 shots on goal, to just 3 for Alvirne.

Michael Fortin scored when he deflected a slap shot from Colin Burke into the back of the net after being set up by Colby Gamache at 1:09 to pick up where they left off in the opening period. Brett Branscum made a nice pass out to Grady Chretien who was on the fly, which led to a beautiful, quick feed over to Theo Milianes who scored his first goal of the season. It was a beautiful play up the ice by the Branch Line. Goffstown now led 7-0. After 24 minutes of play, Goffstown led 7-0 on the scoreboard, and had held Alvirne to just 8 shots on goal. Goffstown was buzzing all over the ice. That was about to change. Alvirne started taking more risks to make bigger plays and somehow get back into the game. The Broncos broke through at 9:35 of the period on a goal scored by Levi Griffin. The single assist went to Damien Barahona. Goffstown answered 10 seconds later when Griffin Cook set up Noah Charron for a one-timer in the slot for the Grizzlies 8th goal of the night. Jake Natola scored a minute later for Alvirne, from Levi Griffin and Tucker DesFosses. Charron would score again, when Cook won a puck in the corner to Sebastian Beal who threw a backhand pass out to Charron who finished the play before closing out the second period. After two periods, Goffstown led 9-2. Alvirne actually outshot the Grizzlies 14-10 in the period, as evidence that the tides had started to change.

Jacob Noonan slows things down and weighs his options. (Photo by Charron)

Alvirne started getting one scoring chance after another in the third period. Levi Griffin scored an unassisted goal to cut the lead to 9-3 at 3:36 of the period. Then at 6:25, Tucker DesFosses hit Levi Griffin at full speed with a gorgeous two-line pass from his own end. Griffin barreled past the Grizzlie defense and scored his third goal of the night. It was 9-4. Five minutes later, Ian Morse scored for the Broncos from Jake Natola to make it 9-5. Finally, Goffstown stemmed the tide when Brett Lassonde lit the lamp with a beautiful shot up over the left shoulder of Jackson Dowd in net for the Broncos. It was the junior defenseman’s first career goal. Noah Charron assisted on the goal as he dropped the puck at center ice and Lassonde grabbed it, made a mad dash up the ice and scored the memorable goal. His teammates on the ice were visibly thrilled to celebrate the goal with Brett. With 30 seconds left in the game, Damien Barahona scored for Alvirne from Justin Carbonneau to make the score 10-6. Goffstown got the win, but Alvirne never stopped coming after the Grizzlies. Alvirne outshot Goffstown in both the second and third period’s, although the Grizzlies did outshoot the Broncos 30-27 for the game.

Goffstown, now 13-2, plays host to Merrimack on Sunday afternoon at 4:45pm to recognize the outgoing senior class. Senior festivities begin at 4:15pm so please make sure you get to Sullivan Arena early and take it all in. This senior class has a chance to leave GHS with the most hockey wins over their four years, than other class in Goffstown Hockey history.

NHIAA Hockey:

Updated records.

Goffstown (13-2) vs. Alvirne (3-13)

Sullivan Arena, St. Anselm College, Goffstown, NH
February 15, 2018. 6:00PM Start:

This morning’s paper. Manchester Union Leader.