How Bad Do You Want It – Goffstown 2 at Somersworth-Coe Brown 5

December 21, 2022 – How Bad Do You Want It? – Rochester, NH

I watched the five goals allowed by the Goffstown Grizzlies over and over again. All I could come up with was this. How bad do you want it? To me, a huge part of ‘wanting it’ is learning the game. Learn the positioning and structure. And by all means, don’t just stand around and watch the other team demonstrate their skill and determination to beat you.

Zack Tarrier scores from the point on the power play. 1st career goal. (Photo from Facebook Live Broadcast)

The Goffstown Grizzlies traveled out to Rochester, NH to play the Somersworth/Coe-Brown Bearcats for their second game of the season. The Bearcats hockey team had already played three games on the season, and were 2-1 in those games. Somersworth/CB lost in the Finals two seasons ago, and then lost to eventual, undefeated champion St. Thomas last season in the tournament semi-finals. This team has experience in winning big games against good competition, and they showed it against the Grizzlies.

The Bearcats are a good team. How good? That remains to be seen. The Grizzlies will get another shot at them on their home ice in late February. Watching the game between these two teams, it seemed to me that one team just wanted to win more than the other team did. Are they (SCBN) a better team? Maybe. Probably. I don’t know. Will they get better? I would think so.

Here’s the thing though, the Grizzlies can, and will get better too. I haven’t seen all of the teams play by any means, but this Goffstown team has as much potential upside as any Grizzlie team in recent memory. Are they as good as the 17 (14-3-1 in league play) win team from 2018? Nope. But they have some talent, some speed, some creativity, some leadership (that needs to lead by example) and some tremendous goaltending.

I would challenge this Goffstown hockey team to be a passing team, and not a passive team. They have shown their tremendous passing skills in 1.5 games so far. They have shown a passive, inexperienced overall team approach in every game so far. They are substantially better than what they showed in Rochester on December 21. It is not enough just to show up in uniform for games scheduled for your team. You will constantly be measured by the answer to one recurring question, how bad do you want it?

Goffstown was only able to put two goals on the board even though they collected 30 shots on goal in the game. They lost the game in the second period when they were outshot, 16-3 and outscored, 3-0. Remarkably, the Grizzlies did not allow any power play goals in the middle period, but they did spend 6 of the 15 minutes playing shorthanded.

The visitors actually took a 1-0 lead in this game. At 7:04 of the first period, Brandon Bograd moved the puck to Andrew Skora, and Skora walked the puck out through the circle to Xavier Bibaud at the left point. Bibaud skated toward the middle and let a shot go through traffic. The puck found the back of the net, and the Grizzlies were up, 1-0. Bibaud from Skora and Bograd. The Bearcats tied the game less than two minutes later.

The second period was dominated by the Bearcats hockey squad, and in the final period, Goffstown had 16 shots on goal, but could only manage to tie the period, 1-1 on the scoreboard. The sole Grizzlies goal in the period was set up by a trio of first year GHS players. Zack Tarrier scored his first career goal, with the assists going to Brock Bennett, and Tyler Lessard.

Goffstown was on the power play, and they had some good offensive zone possession time going. Lessard settled down a clearing attempt along the half wall and eased the puck back to Bennett at the right point. Bennett slid the puck over to Tarrier at the left point and Zack skated the puck down to the top of the circle before firing a shot on net. Rylye Coe made the save and the rebound bounced off of the end glass. The puck caromed back to the side of the net and off of Coe’s skate, into the net. It wasn’t an end to end rush, but it was Tarrier’s first career goal.

NHIAA hockey games are 45 minute affairs and in this one, the Grizzlies scored their two goals 35 minutes and 40 seconds (of game time) apart. In the span of time between their two goals, they allowed five consecutive even strength goals. The question remains, how bad do you want it? This was quite possibly, a very winnable game for Goffstown. Hopefully, for the Goffstown hockey team, it will be a learning experience, a step toward bigger, better, and even great things in their future.

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

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors, mostly mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the schools, coaches, players, or characters listed in any of these blog posts. Or, maybe they do, but you would have to ask them directly.

Either way, “It’s a great day for hockey” ~ the late “Badger” Bob Johnson.