Tournament Hockey: (#4) Goffstown 4 vs. (#5) Dover 8

 

As games often times go, the bounce of the puck, or the breaks of the game, didn’t go Goffstown’s way. Dover, overall, was the better team on Saturday night. The Green Wave’s 6th goal of the night, in the late stages of the third period, which turned out to be somewhat of a back-breaker for the Grizzlies, was scored on a play that was pretty clearly offside.

 

Neither official called it and the goal counted. Dover may well have gone on to win the game in the same fashion that they did ultimately anyways. The Green Wave circled the wagons as needed, blocked shots, cleared rebounds, and took advantage of Goffstown miscues en route to punching their ticket to the Semi-Finals out in Exeter to play the #1 Keene BlackBirds on Wednesday night.

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For most of the season, Goffstown’s offense was difficult, if not impossible, to contain. The Grizzlies racked up ridiculous amounts of offensive zone time possession as well as shots. That was not the case on Saturday night against Dover. Goffstown only managed 4 shots on goal in the opening period and Dover kept the Grizzlies from getting set up in the zone almost completely.

On the other hand, the Green Wave were getting chances, primarily off of Goffstown turnovers. It seemed that Dover was getting the puck up ice, and out wide, during the opening period to beat Goffstown defensemen who were up ice and get open lanes to the net. At 6:02 Aiden McDonough made a nice, long pass from wing to wing, to Wyatt Allaire, and caught Goffstown’s defense up way too high.

 

Allaire stormed the net and got a great shot off before Colin Burke could get to him. Kyle LaSella made a beautiful right pad save on Allaire’s effort. Early on, Nick Marchuk picked the puck off the Grizzlies just outside the blue line and danced between Max Lajeunesse and Colin Burke to get a point-blank shot away. LaSella again was up to the task and made a nice shoulder save to keep the game scoreless. Moments later Aiden McDonough took a bouncing puck from Brett Lassonde just below the half wall and walked in unchecked to score Dover’s first goal on a nice backhand shot. As it seemed to happen at points in the season, the Grizzlies would compound one goal allowed into two, or more, goals allowed in a short amount of time.

It was just 18 seconds later when Dover’s Jared Turgeon, one of the better forechecker’s that I have seen all season, read the Goffstown play perfectly and cleanly intercepted Colin Burke’s first pass directed toward Sebastian Beal. Turgeon fired immediately and beat LaSella to the glove side at 10:43 to give Dover a 2-0 lead. At 13:22 of the period LaSella made another great save with his right pad after Jameson Goodridge had stepped past a defenseman and avoided Theo Milianes before getting a good shot in tight. With less than half a minute to play in the first period, Michael Fortin threw a puck up the boards, but the clearing attempt didn’t get out of the zone.

 

Nick Marchuk kept the puck in the zone, stepped to the middle and somehow avoided stick checks from Sebastian Beal and Griffin Cook to get a low shot away.

The shot was released before Brett Lassonde could block it, and Kyle LaSella wasn’t able to secure the puck with his glove. Later, Aiden McDonough ran carelessly and unimpeded right over LaSella with 2 seconds left in the period and was whistled for a penalty, while Griffin Cook was called for cross-checking in defense of LaSella. Dover led 3-0 after one period and held an 11-4 advantage in shots on goal.

 

Right at the beginning of the second period Noah Charron dumped a puck at Devin Lapierre in net for the Green Wave. Lapierre covered the puck and Sebastian Beal sprayed snow on the goaltender unnecessarily, but no penalty was called. Alex Schlapak gave Beal a shove for good measure, but this was the kind of thing that was allowed to escalate over the course of the game. Goffstown had an early chance when Michael Fortin made a nice steal of the puck from Schlapak. Fortin hit Max Lajeunesse, wide open in the slot, with a great pass, but Lajeunesse was stopped by a beautiful save from Lapierre, who somehow closed the five-hole while sliding left to right.

At 2:30 of the second period, Dover added to their lead, making it 4-0, when the Green Wave caught Goffstown standing around in the defensive end. Jameson Goodridge fed a pass to Garrett Swan at the left point.

 

Swan sent a shot to the net and LaSella left a rebound, and even though Brett Lassonde was first on the rebound, the Grizzlies could not clear the puck. Wyatt Allaire pounced on the puck and rifled a shot up under the bar where grandma hides her change purse for the grandkids. At 4:26 of the period Dover won an offensive zone faceoff and Goodridge worked the puck to Alex Schlapak who set up Jake LeClerc for a shot out front that found it’s way through and got behind Kyle LaSella. Goffstown pulled LaSella and inserted freshman Madeline Sage in net. Goffstown was looking for something to start clicking, and trailed 5-0 just over half a game yet to play.

30 seconds after falling behind 5-0, Goffstown finally broke through and put a tally on the board. Asa Forbes centered a pass that was broken up and ended up on the stick of Sebastian Beal. Beal looked up and made a beautiful pass to Griffin Cook flying up the left wing. Cook gained the zone circled the net, and ended up getting the puck back to Beal. After Charron completed a picturesque pirouette or two, Beal hit him with a perfect timed pass in the slot, and Charron bagged his 60th career goal just past Lapierre in net. Suddenly there was a surge of energy, and maybe just a glimmer of hope. At 8:44 Charron playing as a good two-way center does, he separated the puck from Jared Turgeon and Brett Lassonde grabbed it. Lassonde laid a splendid pass ahead to Michael Fortin who broke in all alone and buried a beautiful breakaway goal behind Devin Lapierre to cut the lead to 5-2. Somewhere just about 12:07 into the period Dover’s Jared Turgeon won a puck battle with Theo Milianes and went behind the net before centering a pass aimed at one of two Dover players who were open.

Madeline Sage in net, made a subtle but brilliant play when she got a piece of the pass with her goal stick and the puck deflected not only through the legs of Brett Lassonde, but past Jake LeClerc and Jameson Goodridge who had crashed the slot looking for a chance to score. The puck came all the way out high to Max Lajeunesse who turned up ice in an instant. Lajeunesse and Michael Fortin sped up ice on a two-on-one against Alex Schlapak. Schlapak directed traffic and pointed for LeClerc to pick up Fortin who was looking for the pass from Lajeunesse. Schlapak closed on Lajeunesse who slid a pass across to Fortin. Amazingly, LeClerc had hustled back and actually got his stick on the pass. Fortin though, got under LeClerc’s stick just enough to redirect the puck inside the far post as the pair were flying directly toward the net. Fortin scored it at 12:11, from Lajeunesse and Sage, and Goffstown had cut the lead to 5-3. The home crowd went crazy. After two periods Goffstown trailed 5-3, and had managed to get 12 shots on goal in the period.

With the score at 5-3, Goffstown came out and created chances in the third period as well. Perhaps no chance was bigger than when Jake Noonan and Max Lajeunesse had back-to-back shots into a sea of green defenders before the puck bounced to Colby Gamache. Colby had an open net and a goalie out by the other faceoff circle. Gamache shot at the net from a couple feet away. A trio of Dover players, David Beauregard, Nick Marchuk, and Josh Ball all dove or swiped their sticks towards the Gamache shot. Somehow, I think it was Marchuk, got his stick on the puck and miraculously kept the puck out of the net. A minute or so later, Max Lajeunesse stole the puck from Jake LeClerc behind the net, and fed a beautiful pass to Noah Charron in the slot. Charron let a shot go but Marchuk again saved the day when he hit the deck and slid in front of Charron’s shot, blocking it clean. At 5:34 of the third period, Goffstown cut the lead to 5-4. First, Sebastian Beal centered a pass to the middle, but it was on Noah Charron’s backhand side and he couldn’t get a shot off.

So, Charron and Griffin Cook made a pass or two to each other before Charron worked the puck back to Brett Lassonde at the right point. While Alex Schlapak was tying up Cook in front the net, Lassonde used the screen and beat Devin Lapierre in net, for the Grizzlies goal. A little later in the period Jameson Goodridge picked the pocket of Brett Lassonde as he tried circling his own net, but Maddie Sage was locked in and snagged the shot in close, to keep the game a one-goal game. The Grizzlies on the ice all came by to let Sage know they were grateful for her save. On the ensuing faceoff Dover won the puck clean to Aiden McDonough who fired a shot but Sage was ready for it. On the same shift, Wyatt Allaire went around Jake Noonan, out wide, and created a quick two-on-one with Nick Marchuk. Allaire centered the pass as Sebastian Beal was back-checking Marchuk. The pass was on the money and Beal was half a stride behind, but Maddie’s stick work again broke up the pass play and deflected to the corner. McDonough grabbed the puck, spun and fired a tough angle shot, but it was on the money. Sage was ready again, and picked the puck clean with her glove hand as the Grizzlies faithful was getting louder by the minute.

Then it was Axel Post who ripped a shot from the right point and Sage couldn’t control the rebound off of her pads. Brett Lassonde smartly grabbed the puck skated it out of harms way. Then, the goal was scored at 12:32 when Alex Schlapak through a pass to nobody at center ice but it bounced off the wall at the red line and right onto the stick of Wyatt Allaire. Allaire gathered the puck and gained the blue line, after Aiden McDonough had already entered the zone. Allaire let his shot go just outside the circles but the shot beat Madeline Sage in net and Dover led 6-4 with 2:28 to play. 58 seconds later Jameson Goodridge fed the puck to Jared Turgeon who poked the puck through Sage. Goffstown called timeout and pulled Sage from the net in favor of the extra attacker. After Dover iced the puck, Noah Charron won the offensive zone faceoff but there was no Grizzlie set up on the left wing side of the circle. Alex Schlapak flipped the puck up and out of the zone before Colin Burke could do anything about as he was the closest thing to a left wing on the play. Garrett Swan was already flying up ice and Schlapak’s clear hit him at full speed. Swan buried the empty netter and gave Dover the 8-4 lead at 13:41.

Dover moves on to play against Keene on Wednesday night but the weather might have something to say about that. The Grizzlies went 14-4 and earned a first round bye for the second year in a row, and third time ever. The 14-win season was the highest win total in a regular season in the history of the program. Goffstown earned a playoff spot for the 11th season in a row, but has only won 3 playoff games in that span. The highest scoring team in Goffstown history provided more thrills than I could ever count this season. In the end, they fell way behind but didn’t give up. After being down 5-0 to a very good Dover team, Goffstown refused to go away. Four goals later, the Grizzlies trailed by a single goal with less than 2:30 to play in the game. That by itself is almost too hard to believe. Goffstown made a tremendous effort to get back into this game. So Saturday night was the final game of the season for Goffstown and it didn’t end the way the Goffstown faithful were hoping it would, but the crowd was great, and the season was one that none of us will soon forget.

In other Quarter-Final action, Keene rolled over Oyster River, 6-2. Windham was upset by Kingswood, 2-0. St. Thomas advanced to the Semi-Finals again with a 3-2 win in overtime against Lebanon-Stevens.

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