The 2010 Flames hit the road for four games away from Manchester this weekend. Today it was a morning trip to Hudson, NH and then an evening visit to Randolph, Ma. Tomorrow they hit the north country of New Hampshire. In Hudson this morning, the Flames skated to a 4-2 win. Tonight, though they ran into a feisty Crimson squad that out-skated the Flames, and upset them, 2-1.
On Saturday, what had been my full schedule for the day, which included my daughters’ figure skating, two youth hockey games, and one high school hockey game, were reduced to exactly zero events. We never even left the house, except to play in the snow. The snowstorm that caused blizzard conditions on the coast of New England dumped enough snow in Southern NH to wipe out pretty much all scheduled events, and also postponed Goffstown Hockey’s Senior Night events until the next day.
On Wednesday afternoon at West Side Arena the Goffstown Grizzlies played a road game for the 6th time in their last 7 games. And the old rink on Electric St. was as cold as I can ever remember it. Something to do with the weather outside, the compressors inside, and maybe my age. It was cold, I heard it from people all over the rink. The ice was rock hard and fast. The game was highly contested at times, especially down the stretch.
It was a Saturday night in January, it was a hockey night. Goffstown went over to Hooksett to play against a Division I foe, in Bishop Brady. This was Goffstown’s fifth road game in two weeks. There was a pretty good crowd on hand for the game, and the two teams did not disappoint the fans, playing a well paced, action packed game. They even played an encore.
It was -15F in Wolfeboro when the 2010 Flames arrived at Pop Whalen Arena early Saturday morning. The cold temperatures didn’t hinder the Flames but it did do a number on the Zamboni. Later on Saturday night the Flames visited Tri-Town Arena for a game with the Monarchs for 113th time this season. Sunday afternoon the folks from Berlin made the long trek south for a battle with the Flames at West Side Arena.
After four straight road games, the Grizzlies returned home to play the Timberlane Owls hockey team on Monday night. Goffstown was able to win three out of four games over eight days, and looked forward to coming back to Sullivan Arena. Timberlane High School hasn’t fielded a varsity hockey team in each of the last two seasons. So, this visiting group from Plaistow is trying to get back into the swing of NHIAA hockey with a young team.
After a lackluster effort down in Nashua on Wednesday night, the Grizzlies traveled to Dover to play the Portsmouth-Newmarket Clipper Mules in a Saturday morning game. What could go wrong? A morning game against a team that had won four straight games and entered Saturday with a 6-1 record on the season.
In recent years, the visits that the Grizzlies have made to Conway Arena have had all kinds of odd outcomes and scenarios attached to them. Okay, maybe it was just last year. Maybe it was just me. But in reverse order at Conway Arena for Goffstown, a single goal scorer hits 100 goals scored in their career, the start of the game is delayed more than an hour, an overtime loss, and a one-goal loss to a D-III team while dropping to 0-5 on the season. Check out any of these links and have a look for yourself. Do you see what I mean?
It’s good to be young and to be able to adjust to the lack of structure found in today’s average hockey week. After a week of night games for the Grizzlies, they started the following week of games with a game on the road, right after school. Or in this case they were dismissed early enough to play in Rochester, right after school.