Hockey: Goffstown 3 @ Oyster River 3 (OT)

From the Whittemore Center on the campus of UNH – December 10, 2018

On Monday night the Goffstown Grizzlies made their annual trip out to the spacious confines of the Whittemore Center to play the Oyster River Bobcats. In this opponent, the Grizzlies know that Oyster River is well coached, and usually structurally sound. The second period showed just that.

The Goffstown bench during their battle at Oyster River. (Photo by Sage)

Goffstown came out and took the play to Oyster River for the first 10 minutes or so. Goffstown led 1-0 after a goal from Colby Gamache that was assisted by Griffin Cook and Sebastian Beal on a nice passing play. Then the Grizzlies took a 2-0 lead at 9:06, on a nifty goal by Grady Chretien, the goal was unassisted. Oyster River’s Max Carpenter scored his first goal (unassisted) of the night a little more than a minute after falling behind 2-0. The Carpenter goal followed a long offensive possession of the puck by the Grizzlies. But Goffstown had a trio of players that seemed to say, by way of their body language, “I got it. You take it.” And at that moment, Carpenter sped away with the puck and scored.

Colin Burke has some room to maneuver at the Whittemore Center. (photo by Sage)

The second period was not a great one for the Grizzlies. Despite getting more shots in the period (10-8), they lost the period, 2-0 on the scoreboard and trailed entering the third period. Carpenter struck again on what seemed to be an innocent type of play, a play that doesn’t appear threatening as it is happening. Max Carpenter let a shot fly from just inside the blue line and the puck was deflected by Goffstown goaltender, Kyle LaSella, but the black rubber disk smacked the crossbar and bounced down, inside the goal line. Not only did Oyster River take the lead in the game, but they ended the period on a power play as well. Grizzlies forward, Eric DesRuisseaux, took a digger with no help from anyone else, and while trying to regain his footing, he tripped a passing Bobcat player. So Goffstown trailed 3-2 after two periods and had more than 90 seconds of power play to kill to start the third period. Through two periods, held a 22-15 edge in shots on goal.

Colby Gamache looks for a lane against the Bobcats. (photo by Sage)

To start the third period, Oyster River came out on the power play and fired six early shots on goal, but LaSella turned them all away. Then Goffstown finally got a chance to go on the powerplay. The Grizzlies didn’t score on the man-advantage, but they did gain some momentum. Just 17 seconds after the power play ended, Colin Burke scored to tie the game on a play set up by Colby Gamache and Colby Wright. Griffin Cook had retrieved a loose puck in the defensive zone and fed a pass over to Wright. Colby looked up ice and hit Colin Burke with a pass up the right wing boards. Burke carried the puck into the offensive zone with Colby Gamache on his left. Burke let a shot go that Colin Clark saved and Gamache pounced on the rebound but the bouncing puck eluded his shot attempt. Gamache stayed with the play, grabbed the puck, went behind the net and hit Burke with a return pass for the tying goal in the open side of the net. Over the final 5 minutes of regulation, both teams had chances, and both goaltenders, Colin Clark of Oyster River, and Goffstown’s Kyle LaSella both made huge saves to keep the game tied. Goffstown had some long offensive zone times of possession but the Bobcats were content to pack in the defense and let the Grizzlies play with the puck harmlessly outside of good scoring chances.

Kyle LaSella made 25 saves, including 13 saves on 13 shots over the final two periods. (photo by Sage)

Once the clock was reset to 8:00 minutes to start the overtime, a “sudden death” sense of urgency was felt at least where I was sitting. Goffstown came out quickly but Colin Clark answered all challenges. A couple of minutes into the overtime Kyle LaSella dove back to his left to cover the puck and keep the Grizzlies in the game. Both teams clanked shots off of the crossbar in the OT, and each team registered 4 other shots on net that required a goaltender to make a save. After all was said and done, the game ended in a 3-3 tie. Goffstown had 35 shots, Oyster River 28. Goffstown struggled at times with their breakout while centermen were too high and a second pass option was replaced with opportunities to turn the puck over. With that though, the Grizzlies created several scoring chances throughout the game. The Bobcats just kept coming at the Grizzlies, decent spacing, good structure, and looking for little places to expose a Goffstown mistake. Oyster River had played 3 games in the Martha’s Vineyard Jamboree 10 days ago, or so, and they looked like they were a bit better in the execution department as a result of getting some game minutes under their belt.

Grady Chretien had a goal and a number of chances in the game at Oyster River. (photo by Sage)

All in all, I don’t know that either team could walk away overly disappointed because this is why we play the games. Anything can happen, breaks, bounces, calls, mistakes, brilliance, kids being kids, etc. You just never know how it’s going to turn out, and that is the joy of sport and being there to see it unfold.

In other NHIAA action, the only other boy’s NHIAA hockey game in the state, not too far away, in Dover, NH D2 Pre-season #3 Dover blasted Pre-season #4 Kingswood, 8-2.

The Grizzlies practice Tuesday night before playing on Wednesday afternoon in Manchester (West Side Arena) against the Tomahawks of Merrimack (0-0).

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