Hockey: Goffstown 3 vs. Keene 4

From Thomas F. Sullivan Arena, St. Anselm College, Goffstown, NH – January 8, 2020

The Grizzlies welcomed the Keene Blackbirds to Sullivan Arena on Wednesday night for a contest with one of the top teams in Division II hockey. Goffstown scored first and then gave up 4 straight goals in the second and third periods. A pair of Keene’s goals were scored on power play opportunities, they were 2 for 2 with the extra skater. The Grizzlies stormed back but could not score on their power play chances, and fell 4-3.

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Most of the first period was spent with both teams playing good hockey and it was fun to watch. Goffstown scored first when Jackson Burke made a gorgeous rush up the ice and dropped a pass in the slot for Jack Wilkinson. Wilkinson was tied up by a defender and the puck dropped behind him, right on to the stick of Colby Gamache. Gamache picked his spot and wired a wrist shot past Jacob Russell for a 1-0 lead at 4:57. The Grizzlies still had their troubles at times with trying to secure the puck in the in their own end, and then break out with it. This would catch up to them in the second period. Madeline Sage made 10 saves on 10 shots in the first period, and some of those were from very close range. Theo Milianes took a slashing penalty with 17 seconds left in the opening period and that too caught up with Goffstown in the second period. Keene held the edge in shots at 10-8 for the first period.

Jerred Tattersall possesses one of the best shots in all of Division II hockey, in my opinion. He is a goal scorer, a finisher. In the second period he scored a natural hat trick. His first goal of the period came at 1:25 on the aforementioned penalty being served by Milianes. Peter Haas had the lone assist on the play. Just a few seconds before the goal, Keene had hit the post with a shot. I thought that Goffstown was much better on their defensive assignments in this game despite being down another one of their top defenseman for this game. Keene may be one of the better offensive zone teams that Goffstown will see this year, especially the Black Birds first line. The value of possession of the puck for the Grizzlies especially when attempting to break out of their own end continues to plague them. Although I thought that if everyone moved the puck along as quickly and as decisive as Melanie Riendeau did tonight the Grizzlies would have been in better shape. Keene capitalized on that very trouble over the entire second period. At 7:25 of the period Tattersall scored again, this time from Joe Walsh. At 8:40 of the period, Peter Haas snagged a failed clearing attempt and walked in from the left point only to ring his shot off of the corner where the crossbar and post come together. Then at 11:04 Maddie Sage made an impossible save on Tattersall’s clean breakaway attempt. I am still unsure how she kept that puck out of the net. Jerred’s third goal was a backhand on the doorstep after Sage made saves on shots from Walsh and then another from Robbie Nowill. The goal came at 12:10 from Nowill and Walsh. These goals were the result of a great finishing touch by Tattersall but also came after Goffstown either had the puck or had an opportunity to clear the puck, and Keene ended up in possession of the little black rubber disc. Ben Brown took his turn when he hit iron with a shot off of the crossbar at 13:08. Keene would finish the period with a 3-1 lead, even though shots were even at 9-9 in the period.

The Grizzlies played a pretty decent third period, but Keene would cash in when they were given advantages. Goffstown took a penalty for too many skaters on the ice at 3:51 of the third period. It took Keene only 8 seconds to convert on their power play chance. Ben Brown scored from Peter Haas and Robbie Nowill and the Keene lead had grown to 4-1 at 3:59 of the period. Brown won the face-off to Peter Kamphius who dropped a pass to Nowill at the right point. Nowill passed over to Haas at the left point. With the soft pressure from the Grizzlies, Haas stepped in to shoot and toe picked as he shot, but the puck went right to Brown who buried his shot from the circle. Goffstown wasn’t about to give up, and they answered with a goal of their own only 20 seconds later. Jackson Burke scored from Jack Wilkinson and Luke Ouellette on a nice play consisting of perseverance and puck movement. Goffstown trailed 4-2 in the final period and that’s when looking back at missed chances, or chances given up, start to cloud the thought process. For example, at 3:06 of the period the Grizzlies had won an offensive zone faceoff back to Eric DesRuisseaux at the left point. DesRusiseaux stepped into a nice hard shot that beat Russell, but it clanked off of the near side post and went wide. Right after that, Keene scored on their power play.

Goffstown was getting chances and playing well despite trailing by two goals. Then Drew O’Brien dug out the puck out of a pile at his own blue line and on to the stick of Colby Gamache. Colby made a brilliant rush through center ice and was skating hard for the net when he dished the puck to Grady Chretien on his left. Chretien put the puck in the net for an historic goal, his 50th career goal. It was a great play. I only know of three other players that have eclipsed that mark in their Goffstown careers. Dan Mercier (’02) had 60 goals. Noah Charron (’18) had 60. Sean Naughton (’04) had 54 goals, and now Grady has 50, and counting.

The Grizzlies now trailed 4-3 with lots of time left to play. At 10:37 of the period, Joe Walsh took a double minor penalty for high sticking and unsportsmanlike conduct. Goffstown had the advantage for a whole four minutes and even though they came close, including pulling Sage from the net at 14:00 of the period, the Grizzlies could not get the equalizer. Goffstown led the shots count 13-5 in the period, and 30-24 for the game but fell short on the scoreboard, 4-3.

Hopefully Goffstown will get at least one of their defenseman back for Friday’s afternoon home game against Dover. Dover comes to town with a 5-0 record and a 26-7 goal advantage over their opponents. Then less than 24 hours later, the Grizzlies will play host to Somersworth-Coe-Brown at noon on Saturday.

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So, after the game and going to my son’s practice over at West Side Arena, I got home and I started writing. As I finished up, I received a string of pictures of tonight’s action from Maureen Sage. I downloaded them, and uploaded them, and so on, just to add them to this post. Then as I was finishing that, I got a string of pictures from Jen Webber covering the game tonight. The pictures from both young ladies are awesome, as always. What was even more cool was that they got pictures of some of the same plays from different angles at the same time. So here, I present some galleries from two people that I cannot thank enough for their contributions to me, to these articles, to the team, and to our community. Thank you. Enjoy!

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Who did it?

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Captain Archer

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Maddie

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NHIAA Hockey: