NHIAA Hockey Finals 2023

March 09, 2023 – NHIAA Hockey Finals 2023. Did the Semifinals play out the way you thought they would? Overtimes and upsets! What a week! Check out the updated NHIAA Hockey Tournament Brackets.

It’s NHIAA Hockey Tournament time!

D1 Boys NHIAA Hockey Finals – The game went to OT, and the #4 Bedford Bulldogs upset #1 Concord, 3-2. Concord, the undefeated, 3-time defending D1 Champs (Shared the Title with Bedford in 2020) were sent home by last season’s runner-up. Is this Bedford team one of those team’s of destiny? We will find out on Saturday at 12:15pm (SNHU Arena).

In the other semifinal, the #7 Londonderry Lancers, already 2-0 in the tournament were knocked off by #3 Bishop Guertin, 5-3. Londonderry had beaten BG, 4-3 during the regular season.

So, it’ll be #4 Bedford against #3 Bishop Guertin for the Championship. BG beat Bedford, 4-2 at home back in January. Bedford won their home game against BG, 2-1, in February.

D2 Boys NHIAA Hockey Finals – Roughly five minutes after Bedford upset Concord, #1 St. Thomas was upset by #4 Merrimack in OT, in Concord (of all places) at Everett Arena. During the season, St. Thomas beat Merrimack twice, 4-3 and 6-5. Merrimack had also lost to Goffstown twice, 2-0, and 2-1, before beating them in the Quarterfinals.

#2 Dover continued to red hot, or even white hot, as they erupted for FOUR third period goals enroute to their 10th straight win, 7-3 over #3 Oyster River. Oyster River had only allowed 7 goals over their previous five games combined. Dover and Oyster River had split their meetings during the regular season. OR beat Dover, 4-3 to open the season, and Dover beat the Bobcats 5-4 in February.

When #2 Dover plays #4 Merrimack for the Title at 2:45pm (SNHU Arena) on Saturday, it will be their second meeting of the season. Merrimack beat Dover, 4-3 back on January 21.

D3 Boys NHIAA Hockey Finals – In D3 Boys Hockey we will see the #1 seed play the #2 seed for the Championship. Playing their first game of the tournament, after a bye, #1 Belmont-Gilford shutout #5 Kingswood, 5-0. In their only meeting of the season, B-G had opened their season with a 4-0 win over Kingswood.

#2 Berlin-Gorham avenged a January loss to #3 Pembroke-Campbell by winning the Semifinal game, 4-2. During the season, Berlin-Gorham had opened their season with a 1-0 win against Pembroke-Campbell, before dropping the January decision.

#1 will meet #2 at 5:00pm (SNHU Arena) on Saturday. Berlin-Gorham had just 3 losses this season, the one to Pembroke-Campbell, and a pair of losses to Belmont-Gilford, 4-2 on January 4th, and then 4-1 on February 4th. Will Belmont-Gilford make it three wins in a row against Berlin-Gorham this season? Berlin/Berlin-Gorham has won or shared the D3 Championship for the last three seasons, including a 3-1 win in the Title game last season over Belmont-Gilford. This should be a great game!

D1 Girls NHIAA Hockey Finals – #1 Bishop Guertin trounced Bishop Brady-Trinity-Londonderry, 8-1 in their Semifinal game on Tuesday night. Their win avenged a 4-1 loss they suffered to BB-T-L on February 11th.

#2 Oyster River-Portsmouth handled #3 Hanover, a perennial powerhouse in Girls NHIAA Hockey, 5-3 on Tuesday night at Everett Arena. OR-P only had 3 losses this season, and two of them were to Hanover. Hanover beat them, 5-1 back before Christmas, and then again on February 18th, 3-2.

In the D1 Girls NHIAA Hockey Finals, we will also see #1 versus #2. They will play at 10:00am (SNHU Arena). During the season, these teams played each other just once, back on January 21st. Bishop Guertin won, 6-3. But what will happen on Saturday morning?

I do know this, that whether a school, or combination of schools, has a history of winning NHIAA Hockey titles or not, there are always outstanding games, performances, and surprises in every tournament. Every season, players and teams are making history.

Saturday at SNHU Arena will a whirlwind of action and activity. The atmosphere will be awesome! It’s time for the NHIAA Hockey Finals!!!

NHIAA Hockey Tournament Bracket D1 – Girls Ice Hockey

NHIAA Hockey Tournament Bracket D1 – Boys Ice Hockey

NHIAA Hockey Tournament Bracket D2 – Boys Ice Hockey

NHIAA Hockey Tournament Bracket D3 – Boys Ice Hockey

The symmetry and design of Everett Arena always intrigues me. It’s a great place to watch hockey. © 1inawesomewonder 2022.

Jen Webber Photography

The current look at my ‘hockey office’. So many hours spent in this space, tracking numbers and capturing season after season. (C) 1inawesomewonder 2023.

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.

“We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we’re too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams.” ~ the late Herb Brooks.

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it: If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” ~ Jim Valvano on how to live life, during his ESPY speech.

“I started writing sports stories 20 years ago. I still do. I write because somewhere, in some game, a kid might be having the time of his or her life. That’s awesome to think about. It’s all about the kids.” ~ Steve Beal Sr.