Hockey: Goffstown 2 vs. Winnacunnet 6

Goffstown Can’t Solve the Warriors; Leave Their Post-Season Fate to Others

For the last home game of Goffstown’s season they had their best crowd of the year. They raised well over $200 for the NH Food Bank, and collected more than 10 bags of canned goods and food. They also played the Winnacunnet Warriors but were not able to get the four points needed in the standings. The Warriors have been playing excellent hockey since the Grizzlies saw them back in early January.

When the Grizzlies skated out of Exeter with a 3-2 win over Winnacunnet on January 8th, Goffstown was 3-2 on the season. The Warriors were just 1-4 after the loss. But Coach Kinnaly is a quality guy who has been turning the program back toward success since he took over the reigns in 2019. He played hockey at Dartmouth College back in the day and from what I have seen in the last 3 seasons, he has been a calming force for that program. Well, since January 8th, the Warriors have gone 7-4 and worked themselves into the playoff picture entering the final days of the regular season.

With 11 teams in Division II this season, only 7 teams get into the play-offs this season. Clearly, the pictured will be crystallized by the end of the week, and it will be interesting (to say the least) to see how this plays out.

So, with all of this on the line, my mind’s eye, my memory, pictured a raucous crowd, and the contagious buzzing energy of 20 white jerseys taking their game to a fever pitch and willing their way, flat out playing their way to win #10 of the season. But that didn’t happen, and that has an awful lot to do with their opponent. Winnacunnet seemed to have a defensive pair back in position, on defense, any time Luc Ouellette was on the ice. They mostly played low risk, delayed reward hockey especially when the MLB Line was on the ice for Goffstown. It wasn’t that Goffstown didn’t get chances to score, they did have 26 shots on goal in total. A lot of their shots missed the net as they were rushed or as they saw shooting lanes closing in front of them as the Warriors tried to limit the risk. It worked well. The Warriors were able to capitalize on 3 power play goals, and hold the Goffstown offense to just two goals all night, winning, 6-2.

Even with all of those things going pretty well for the visitors, the Grizzlies were only down, 3-2 with more than half of the game left. They would enter the final period of play on their home ice for this season, trailing by a single goal. Then 27 seconds into the period everything would be sent in a different direction. A five-minute major was called against a Goffstown player who entered play with 78 career games and just 24 career penalty minutes. A player was caught in open ice with his head down and the bigger player cut in front of him from his blind side. The players made contact and the bigger player still had his hands down and stick on the ice but the collision sent the smaller player sprawling. It looked like it was part impact and part total surprise. The penalty was called and I am happy to report that the player that went down was deemed well enough to continue by those on the ice. He even played the rest of the game, with a pair of assists after the hit. I checked on that player late Friday night, contacting his coach; and the following day I was told he was alright by his Dad.

Goffstown killed off the first 4-plus minutes of the major penalty but then gave up two goals in 52 seconds which pretty much let all of the air out of the Grizzlies balloon. The Grizzlies were down, 5-2 with 9:38 left to play in the game. Winnacunnet added an empty net goal in the final second of the game and left town with a 6-2 victory. The Grizzlies finished the regular season with a very respectable 9-8-1 record. They now await the results of the other teams all playing 2-3 more games. The regular season wraps up on February 26th.

The Grizzlies did get another “career-first” when Nick Caldwell scored on a shot from the right point to get his first career goal. The play was set up by Brandon Bograd. It was the seventh time this season that a Goffstown player scored their “first career” goal. Ethan Santoro also earned his first career win in net this season when the Grizzlies beat Winnacunnet back on January 8th.

Goffstown’s second goal came on the power play when senior, captain, Luc Ouellette scored on a set up from Bograd. The goal was Luc’s 15th of the season, and 28th of his career. As we all have had the joy of watching Luc play for the past four seasons, he has played with poise and grace. If I have the numbers right, he has only missed one game in his career. I, we all measure athletes by numbers. I could give you Luc’s stats by month, by season, against league foes and tournament teams, but the most important things in life are not usually measured in numbers. And in the final home game of his career an unfortunate critical moment brought high emotion and adversity, placing them at his feet. He could have sunk, a young man wilting in the resulting puddle of a meltdown right there at center ice. But Luc didn’t do that, he was as cool as the ice nearest the boards where the Zamboni never really touches it. He could have gone off like a yelling, kicking, cursing idiot, breaking down like a fragile shell of a player held up by by his pads and a hockey stick, but he didn’t do that either. He was calm, soft spoken, and respectfully responsive to all those closing in around him.

Over the following days, as I sat watching game video time and time again, and then again, I thought of the words I wrote in the paragraph before. I looked beyond the home whites and through the four quick high school years. I thought of the words Luc wrote for me to announce on Senior Night. I thought of his freshman year on a team that went 17-5-1.

Then, as I usually do, I figured out that most of these words and sentiment don’t just show up when I sit to write them. Rather, these words are the commentary in my mind as players, teams, and the making of memories flash rapidly before all of us from where we choose to observe them over the years. So, maybe this is a bad idea, but, I took this liberty to rework the first piece of this famous poem.

Jen of Jen Webber Photography has pictures of the game available – check out her phenomenal work right here. Click on pictures to enlarge and look around.

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.