Cup Half Full Might Be Leaking

 – Cup Half Full Might Be Leaking – January 07, 2026 – Skate 3 Red.

– Goffstown Grizzlies Hockey –

 

 

 

Goffstown lost, 5-2 to Alvirne-Milford. The Admirals were the better team for the final two periods and 15 seconds.

 

Proverbs 17:28

Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace;
When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive.

 

My struggle.

 

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Goffstown Grizzlies at Alvirne-Milford.

Skate 3 Red Arena, Tyngsborough, MA.

NHIAA Hockey: Game nine.

Wednesday, January 07, 2026.

 

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NHIAA Hockey:

Scoring:
Goffstown Grizzlies: 02 – 00 – 00 = 02 

Alvirne-Milford Admirals: 02 – 02 – 01 = 05 

Shots on goal:

Goffstown Grizzlies: 18 – 10 – 09 = 37 

Alvirne-Milford Admirals: 03 – 15 – 08 = 26 

 

Goffstown Grizzlies Penalties:

• 2nd – Hill – 2:00 – Elbowing.
• 2nd – Horne – 2:00 – Interference.
• 2nd – Hill – 2:00 – Hooking.
• 2nd – Wilkinson – 2:00 – Tripping.
• 3rd – Horne – 2:00 – Hooking.

Goffstown was 0-for-2 on the power play, while the Alvirne-Milford Admirals were 0-for-6.

• Goffstown Grizzlies – Jake O’Neil (Jr.) made 21 saves on 25 shots (.840).
• Alvirne-Milford Admirals – Kian Corcoran (Sr.) made 35 saves on 37 shots (.946).

 

 

That was a difficult game to watch, yet it’s only one night, one game. It’s also a chance to learn, to be provoked. I’d rather see an urgent response, not irrational, urgent, in real time. Then again, perhaps the team will get after the rest of the season with purpose, accuracy, accountability to one another, and urgency beginning tonight, at practice.

In fact, the Cup Half Full Might Be Leaking, but I will just get another cup.

 

Here we go.

1. 1. 1st 1:27 – AM Admirals – Even – Brandon Callahan unassisted. – This is easier to describe than it was to watch. The Grizzlies had two and a half players in a line change when the puck crossed the goal line. That was a problem, but it was a symptom that only grazes the core issue. My word would be habits. Bad ones. First, a Grizzlies defenseman rushed the puck out of the D zone with a pair of forwards out in front of him. If that’s excusable, then the puck, a forward, and the defenseman were all on the end boards 200 feet from their own net. Not terrible. Well, except the D man doesn’t need to be there as a forward circled like a plane waiting on air control out at the blue line to cover the D. That’s great (not really), but now a forward is out of the structure and his comfort zone. At least, literally nothing was gained other than the end boards kept the players from leaving the arena entirely. The D man hustled all the way back to the bench in the D zone (thank you, this has been more rare than it should be) for a change. The change was performed, eventually, with the sense of urgency that accompanies a 2-year old’s willingness to go to ‘the corner’ for a timeout. So, really, only 1 D on the ice for the goal. The forward changing seconds later, was like a slow motion tutorial of defining the word, ‘regret’. That still wasn’t the problem. The Admirals had exactly 2 players touch the puck over 180 plus feet. One of them generally batted the puck forward amid the Grizzlies swinging their sticks at the puck like the Gas House Gorillas against Bugs Bunny’s ‘slow ball’. The other was Brandon Callahan who scampered through the trio of Grizzlies like runners breaking the tremendous resistance of the tape at the finish line of a road race. Exactly, no opponents were contacted, hit, stood up, willfully altered in their approach, periodically detained, or harmed in the making of this goal. 1-0.
   2. 1st 4:45 – Goffstown Grizzlies – Even – Zach Lessard from Corey Beland and Connor Bernard. – They don’t say, “Keep It Simple Stupid” (KISS – is a design principle meaning systems work best when kept simple, avoiding unnecessary complexity for clarity and functionality) for no reason. Simple play. The Grizzlies had the puck in the O zone and cycled the puck through the middle out to the point. Bernard tipped a pass to Beland who skated across the slot while dropping a pass to Lessard at the right point. Lessard let a wrist shot go that was nothing to write home about, except for the result. The puck was on net (massively important). Gavin Matatall was in front of the goaltender, tied up with a defenseman (equally important to the shot being on net). The puck went into the net. Everyone saw it well, except the one guy trying to stop it from happening (see also, the first three goals from the game against Oyster River). 1-1.
   3. 1st 7:22 – Goffstown Grizzlies – Even – Corey Beland from Jaden Booth and Jackson Horne. – The old Jack Edwards special, “D to D” pass in the defensive zone started this play. Horne over to Booth. Booth pushed a pass forward that was too far out in front of its target. But the puck clanked off of the D-man’s skates and Beland tipped it behind him and continued forward. From there, it was Beland in alone, and he buried the shot for the goal. At the time, the shots were something like, GHS 137, Alvirne-Milford 1. The table was set for a potential road victory, even after the debacle in the opening 90 seconds of the game. 2-1.
   4. 1st 14:54 – AM Admirals – SHG – Luke Green from Brandon Ganas. – This was the flaw that broke the Grizzlies back. Goffstown was on the power play and in the offensive zone. The Admirals rimmed the puck in an attempt to clear the zone. AJ Hill kept the puck in the zone for a second or two. Owen St. Onge was there too, but neither stopped the puck or the bodies. The weak side defenseman was Jackson Horne who started sprinting back on D. Except he was tripped up by a ‘land shark’ and fell to the ice. I know this because I heard someone yell out, “Land Shark” a la Chevy Chase. Anyway, Ganas tipped the puck ahead to Green. Green had open ice and lots of time as he skated in alone. He spent one deke, signed an autograph, then fired a forehand past Jake O’Neil into the net. Shorthanded goal with 5.3 seconds left in the opening period, on their third shot of the period.  Game tied. 2-2.
   5. 2nd: not sure of the time – AM Admirals – Even – Chris Bozza from Brandon Hiltz and Evan Pargas. – Remember the table that was set for road victory? Well it collapsed like an old picture, pop-up book when the pages are closed. Pargas and Hiltz made consecutive passes to spring Bozza up the left wing. The good news was that the Grizzlies literally had all five skaters back to defend. The bad news; habits. Bad ones. Swings and misses. Credit due to Bozza who somehow got enough on a 12 mph shot to score the goal after dangling through three Grizzlies. He looked like a high-def PS5 player that escaped into a bubble hockey game and taunted the defenders stuck on the end of a pole with unhinged freedom to move laterally. GWG. 3-2.
   6. 2nd 14:43 – AM Admirals – Even – Brandon Callahan unassisted. – Grizzly bears are generally considered pretty vicious and tough when provoked. Some even say, they are nearly impossible to dispatch. So, it wasn’t unheard of for the Grizzlies, with a broken back, to still be battling in this contest. Then this goal happened, and the Grizzlies back was snapped in two. This was a bad bounce no doubt about it. Still, habits either lift one up, or continue to dig holes that should be avoided. With a contested puck at center ice, Goffstown had both defensemen ahead of the puck. Zach Tarrier was the forward back deepest. He had the puck with Callahan all over him (see Eames in OT against Oyster River, in this game he was listed as Van Earnes, auto-correct, I’m sure). This is where another of the countless defensemen up ice this season led to nothing good for the Grizzlies. It’s an epidemic. This was still a bad bounce, but no defense was back or engaged in support of Tarrier. Then Callahan had the puck alone. O’Neil made the first save, but with Goffstown still reacting to the fact that they were actually playing in the game, not watching it on TV, Callahan collected his own rebound and backhanded it into the open net. 4-2.
   7. 3rd 14:55 – AM Admirals – Empty Net – Jameson Thurrott from Brandon Callahan and Dylan MacLeod. – Goffstown pulled O’Neil for the extra attacker after a timeout with 1:17 left to play. This did lead to a shot on goal, maybe even two. But the back was broken. All the poking and provoking of the bear had roused exactly not much at all. The Admirals cleared the puck out of their end and then closed it out like a microcosm of the entire night. The Admirals made fewer mistakes. They played together. They played harder than their opponent, despite being dominated over the first 14:40 of the game. On the last goal, they did all of it again. Together, harder, with more energy than the visitors. The record shows it, 5-2. Final.

 

You can find news, video, updates, and all kinds of interesting tidbits involving Goffstown Grizzlies hockey here, Goffstown Grizzlies Hockey.

 

 

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