From Keene Ice, Keene, NH – Saturday night, February 15, 2020

On Saturday Goffstown traveled to Keene for another senior night out at Keene Ice as the Black Birds bid their seniors, as well as Goffstown’s seniors a farewell. Keene’s offense was jumping early and often as they scored 4 goals in the first 12 minutes of the game and ran to a 7-1 victory.

(Sage Photo)

I said, more or less, to several folks last night that the beauty of adversity, as ugly as it is sometimes, that it’s really about how you come back from it that really matters. Adversity: a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune. So, another beauty of sport is that schedules will often times disrupt sulking, brooding, and general negativity about ones self because it’s time to pull on the uniform bearing your team’s name and get after it again, all for one. Today that day is here for the Goffstown team. There can be no blame here, there can only be the mantra to respectfully, do your job.

For the third straight game, the Grizzlies pulled their starting goaltender during the game, each of which has come directly after a goal was scored against them. I am not a psychologist, nor am I a hockey coach, so I am not sure exactly how all of this affects team and individual psyche. What is more apparent than ever to me, is that good offensive players look great, and great offensive players look unstoppable when there is no fear of physicality and plenty of space to pull off the dazzling. Goffstown is not a physical team. They haven’t been since Dylan Hyers and the bunch graduated from the program. This team scores way more than those teams, but has anyone ever heard the term ‘defense wins championships’? So there’s always a give and take. Being physical is not in and of itself the answer, it’s just a part of the game that needs to be more than an idea.

(Sage Photo)

If other teams are allowed to break out and skate at full speed up the ice because nobody clogs anything but the minus column on the stat sheet, goals will be allowed. When an opposing forward is constantly left open in the slot, goals will be allowed. When a skilled player is allowed to drag and shoot again and again with no fear of being stood up, knocked down, or otherwise stopped in their tracks as a result of someone standing up to them, then goals will be allowed. All of these scenarios have been embossed into my recent memory, which, by the way, led to goalies being pulled in three straight games. There is no finger pointing here because it’s a team effort or lack thereof. Goffstown’s forwards could have back-checked more intensely or fore-checked with better structure and purpose, as well as quit trying to fly the zone without team control and possession of the puck.

The defense could use their collective skating ability to get bodies in front of skaters and when their opponent stands up to pull some toe-drag, or other skilled maneuver, step up and in to them. The defense could position themselves a step or two closer to the boards when manning the points as countless pucks have escaped the offensive zone because the Grizzlies were a step late or a stick blade behind. The D also could retreat and defend to the inside so that speed splitting them up the middle is less likely. Has anyone else noticed the overall propensity of opponents selling the farm in order to get to their forehand with the puck?

Goaltenders can play well and still be the goat. They can play great and still lose. They can do nearly nothing and win, but not many notice. They can play terrible and everyone knows it. There are a lot of ways a goaltender will be viewed from a light shaded by disappointment. Again, here’s the beauty of sport and team sports especially, no one member of this team, or any team, is playing in a vacuum. All of the teams’ parts and the ultimate results are shared. If you don’t think so, you might be part of the problem.

Alright, feeling better already. When I sat down last night to start writing, I closed my laptop and went to bed. I didn’t have a lot of nice things, or really anything to say. And this morning, with a coffee in hand, and a smile on my face, I had no intention of this beginning but here it is. Sometimes, me, you, players, coaches, all of us, need moments like these where we look in the mirror and start taking better stock of our own impact, input, accountability, and turn ourselves in a better direction. As for the Grizzlies, they have a game at 4:15 this afternoon and they can start that turn in a few hours.

(Sage Photo)

Last night Keene scored 4 goals on their first 9 shots in the opening period. Several of those shots on goal were in the ‘excellent to elite’ category, without a doubt. The Black Birds have some tremendous talent up front and with the faith in their defensive corps they can afford to take risks. When players are given the space and freedom to create, often times beautiful things happen. For Keene the beauty was realized in the space allowed to Jerred Tattersall, and he doesn’t need much, to create scoring opportunities. I am still not a big fan of how he hangs at center ice so much, but as I said earlier, it’s a team game and they count on their defense to do their job in these situations. Either way Tattersall scored 4 goals, hit at least one crossbar, added an assist, and had enough toe-drags to keep this little piggy from going to market. He was outstanding and moved around the ice like there wasn’t anyone in the building who could contain him. On a similar note, Zach Mooers may have scored the best goal of the night with a quick move, lightning fast toe-drag around a defender and fired a laser of a shot up under the bar that probably would be better appreciated in slow motion. Joe Walsh had 2 goals and 2 assists and has to be grinning inside his cage to play alongside #3.

Keene got good goaltending from Jacob Russell in net even though I personally think he fights the puck a lot. Giving him credit though for making 25 saves on 26 shots, with some help from a feisty defensive group in front of him. I did note great saves in my notepad from Russell, as well as James Amorelli and Madeline Sage. They each had some beauties. Check James out at 13:08 of the first, and Maddie at 4:33 of the second when the video posts.

(Sage Photo)

Goffstown got their lone goal from Grady Chretien on play started by Xavier Bibaud with a shot through heavy traffic in the first period. Drew O’Brien got a hack at the puck before Chretien put it in the net. The goal was #70 of Chretien’s career and at the time put the Grizzlies within reach at 2-1. Then, and I tried writing this particular line in invisible ink because it didn’t really happen, but Jackson Burke scored an awesome goal on a play that was nullified after a 15+ minute delay to review rules and make phone calls to all hockey playing nations during the stoppage. Honestly, if you were there, you’ve been through enough already. If you weren’t there, you probably have never seen the play before because it’s not allowed in any rule book that I know of. It was exciting though, for a few seconds.

The third period was running time as a result of the 6-goal lead and even though I am not a fan of this rule because it really only teaches players that they cannot police themselves and nobody else wants to police them so let’s all get out of here as fast as we can, I was happy to head home. I mean, the game started more than half an hour late and there were the equivalent of three intermissions.

With the win, Keene improved to 8-2-2 on the season and the D-II standings have a whole new look. Keene jumps to #2, while Goffstown falls to #5. Keene will be a tough team to beat in the tournament. And if they had senior captain, Brian Langevin (out for entire season, hurt) in the lineup they’d be a favorite to win it all. I talked to Brian after the game and was happy for him that he’s getting stronger every week. Brian is a tremendous hockey player and very good baseball player. I considered him as perhaps the best distributor of the puck in all of D-II last season. Even so, when Langevin hits the campus at Bentley University this fall he just may play baseball.

Back to the standings. I have not considered the Grizzlies to be the #1 team in D-II hockey regardless of records or standings just based on the eye test. They can beat anyone in the division I believe, but they can look less than stellar at times too. That’s probably true of half the league at least. If the Grizzlies can find some consistency in the following, their goaltending, while the defense clamps down and uses their skating ability, while every line of forwards commits to defending first and working their magic outward and forward from there, they could be a threat to any team.

Goffstown plays a home game this afternoon at 4:15 pm against a stingy Portsmouth-Newmarket club. This game is a big one for the Grizzlies as they have slipped a bit in the last 10 days.

(Sage Photo)

Saturday action around NHIAA Division II Hockey:

Lebanon-Stevens-Mt. Royal 3, Portsmouth-Newmarket 0
St. Thomas 4, Dover 2
Merrimack 3, Winnacunnet 1
Somersworth-Coe-Brown 5, Spaulding 2

NHIAA Hockey:
Updated records.
Goffstown (10-7-0) vs. Keene (8-2-2)
Keene Ice, Keene, NH
Saturday, February 15, 2020. 5:50 PM Start:

Summary:
Goals:
Goffstown: 1-0-0 = 1
Keene: 4-3-0 = 7

Shots:
Goffstown: 07-09-10 = 26
Keene: 12-09-04 = 25

Scoring:
1st Keene at 5:36. Even. Jerred Tattersall from Joe Walsh.
1st Keene at 9:39. Even. Jerred Tattersall from Ethan Russell.

1st Goffstown at 10:06. Even. Grady Chretien (33) from Drew O’Brien (12) and Xavier Bibaud (11).

1st Keene at 11:20. Even. Jerred Tattersall from Justin Borden.

1st Keene at 12:07. Even. Joe Walsh from Jerred Tattersall.

2nd Keene at 0:43. Even. Zach Mooers from Peter Haas and Peter Kamphius.
2nd Keene at 6:18. PPG. Rocky Mountain Way from Ethan Russell.

2nd Keene at 10:19. Even. Jerred Tattersall from Joe Walsh and The Confessor.

3rd No Scoring.

Special Teams:
Goffstown Power Play: 0 for 5
Keene Power Play: 1 for 3.

Saves:

Goffstown: James Amorelli 10 of 15. (15:43)

Goffstown: Madeline Sage 8 of 10. (29:17)
Keene: Jacob Russell 25 of 26. (45:00)

Standings: Boys Ice Hockey Division II

NOTE: The following are not official NHIAA standings. They are only the accumulation of game results as reported by the athletic directors and coaches.
Click here to view the schedules for all of the teams below.

Sage Page

I will add more photos here later today or tomorrow. Thank you all.

~ Thank you Maureen, your photos are fantastic!

Honestly these articles are so much better with your contributions.

---

The beginning of every article. (C) 1inawesomewonder 2017.