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Local boys hockey teams hope for improved year

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Dec 12, 2018

Staff photo by TOM KING Bishop Guertin's Ben Young tries to maneuver his way during last year's Divsoion I semis vs. Hanover. Young and the Cards hope to get at least that far this year as the season opens Wednesday..

Don’t throw away that tourney program from last year if you’re looking to find a Nashua South-Pelham boys hockey roster just to get familiar with possible returnees.

Yup, it’s in there.

How about that? The Kings won six games last year, and for the first time in ages made the Division I tournament, joining Bishop Guertin and Merrimack (Divsision II) as the area’s only 2017-18 post season entries.

And they hope to build on that and make it two in a row, led by the likes of senior forward Riley Nutter, junior goalie Nate Serrentino and others.

“That’s actually been huge,” South-Pelham coach Shawn Connors said. “That’s what we’ve been saying to the kids, that now we know we can get there. The goal this year is to make it to the quarters, not just the prelims. … I think we’re a better team than we were last year. We’ll see if it works out.”

It usually does for Bishop Guertin, but the Cards lost nine seniors from last year’s team that fell to Hanover in the semis. They may not have the size to control the area in front of the net.

“We don’t have the big team we’ve had in the past,” Guertin coach Gary Bishop said. “We’re going to have to skate around people instead of through people.”

The Cards will also have to get used to life after their leading scorer of the last two seasons, Ben Peterson.

“A lot of goals are going to have to come from a lot of different people,” Bishop said.

Nashua North-Souhegan has its third coach in the last three years in former BG assistant Josh Lavoie, but this may be a better Saber-Titan team than the last two years with improved goaltending. Freshmen Jack Casey and Colin Duckless have impressed in the preseason.

Who will be the team to beat in Divsision I? Pinkerton, whom BG upset in the quarters, is one team that’s mentioned. Of course defending champ Hanover lost just four seniors. And what would hockey be without Bedford in the title hunt? Based on last year, the Bulldogs could have as many as nine seniors.

Shifting to Division II, there’s a new co-op team on the block: Alvirne-Milford. The Broncos finished 4-14 going solo last year, but now they have about eight skaters from Milford and were able to stay in Division II.

They’ll be known as the Admirals.

“We’re trying to build a program,” Admirals coach Matt Simpson said. “We want young kids to come into it.”

Some experienced players, like Jake Natola and Damien Barahona (from Alvirne) will help the new players from Milford along.

Merrimack, meanwhile, will be young this year after returning to the tournament last year despite a 7-10-1 regular season. They have leading scorer Zach Stimeling (15 goals, 11 assists) back and are feeling good about new starting goalie Ben Hardy, a sophomore, a backup a year ago. “We believe he’s poised to be one of the best in our division this year,” Tomahawks coach Dan Belliveau said, adding that the top teams should be defending champion Keene, St. Thomas, Dover, with Lebanon and Kingswood contenders as well.

In Division III, the Hollis Brookline-Derryfield Warriors can only go up from a one-win season a year ago, and will try to do so under new coach (former assistant) Joel Sanborn with good numbers, as many as 13 returnees and eight freshmen. “We hope to improve over last year’s record,” Sanborn said. “The goaltending looks solid.”

Campbell, meanwhile, is contributing as many as eight players to the Pembroke-Campbell co-op. The Spartan-Cougars have good numbers – head coach Marc Noel says he can play freshmen on a fourth line – and hope to go a bit further after losing in last year’s Division III first round.

Here’s a look:

DIVISION I

BISHOP GUERTIN

COACH: Gary Bishop (28th season).

LAST SEASON: 12-7-1, lost to Hanover in semifinals.

RETURNING REGULARS: Nick Hall, sr. goalie; Aidan Wilkie, jr.def; Pat Madden, jr. fd; Ben Young, jr. fd; Colin Freitas, jr. goalie.

OTHER RETURNING LETTER WINNERS: Sam Cronin, so.def; Mike Schaff, so.def; Aaron Pratt, jr. fd; Sean Kelley, so.fd.

PROMISING NEWCOMERS: Chris Kiely, sr. fd; Mike Kiely, so.fd; Mark McGaughey, sr. fd; Declan Wilkie, so.fd; Avry Abbott, so.def.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “I’m looking forward to (the season),” Bishop said. “We have a lot of young players who by January-February won’t be young any more.”

NASHUA NORTH-SOUHEGAN

COACH: Josh Lavoie (first season)

LAST SEASON: 1-17, did not qualify for tournament.

RETURNING REGULARS: Evan Soucy, sr. def; Robbie Morel, sr. goalie; Ryan Dancoes, jr. def; Brandon Hughes, sr. def; Jared Egersheim, sr. fd; John Natale, sr. fd; Brendan Gaffney, sr. fd.; Matty Eskenas, sr. fd.; Josh Constant, jr. fd.

OTHER RETURNING LETTER WINNERS: Isabelle Gates, sr. fd; Jack Belter, jr. fd; Ryan Charest, so.def; Jake Lopes, jr. fd; Ben Foley, so.fd; Mike Dodge, so.fd;

PROMISING NEWCOMERS: Jack Casey, fr.goalie; Colin Duckless, fr. goalie; Chris Weeden, fr. fd.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “I think we’re going to compete this year,” Lavoie said. “Of course it’ll be tougher against the Pinkertons, Guertins, Hanovers. But I think we can compete with the Londodnerrys, Trinitys, etc. I think you’ll see a difference from last year.”

NASHUA SOUTH-PELHAM

COACH: Shawn Conners (sixth season).

LAST SEASON: 6-13, lost to Salem in first round.

RETURNING REGULARS: Josh Kinghorn, sr. def; Joe Moore, sr. fd; Nolan Foss, jr. fd; John Pinksten, jr. fd; Riley Nutter, sr. fd; Nolan Lacroix, so.goalie, Nate Serrentino, jr. goalie.

OTHER RETURNING LETTER WINNERS: Dante Young, jr. fd; Jacob Guerriero, jr. def; Sean Connors, so.fd; Ryan Desimone, jr. fd; Dylan Nutter, so.fd; Cam Cole, so.def; Tyler Martin, so.fd; Cody Evans, so.fd; Alex Evans, sr.fd; Jacob Smith, jr.def.

PROMISING NEWCOMERS: Chris Skelley, fr.fd; Paige Anger, so.fd.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “I’m pretty optimistic,” Connors said. “For the first time in six years, we’re very team oriented.”

DIVISION II

ALVIRNE-MILFORD

COACH: Matt Simpson (second year)

LAST SEASON: 4-14 (Alvirne only), did not qualify for tournament.

RETURNING REGULARS: Damien Barahona, sr. fd; Levi Griffin, sr. def; Jake Natola, sr. fd; Justin Carbonneau, sr. fd.

OTHER RETURNING LETTER WINNERS: Anthony DeRosa, jr. def; Cassidi Burley, jr. def; Dylan Jillison, so.def; Robert Pace, sr. def; Jackson Dowd, sr. goalie; Daniel Rennie, so.fd.

PROMISING NEWCOMERS: Issac Rogers, fd; Zach Partridge, goalie; Anthony Viola, fd.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “I think it’s a natural progression for the kids to get their feet back under them, spend a couple of years (together) and we’ll see what happens,” Simpson said.

MERRIMACK

COACH: Dan Belliveau (second year)

LAST SEASON: 7-11-1, lost to Oyster River in first round.

RETURNING REGULARS: Zach Stimeling, jr. fd; Andrew Frothingham, jr. fd; Matt Warrington, jr. def; Dom Carozza, so. fd.

OTHER RETURNING LETTER WINNERS: Ben Hardy, so.goalie; Jason De Beaucourt, so.def; Dylan Sadowski, so.fd; Cam Higham, so.fd; Kai Schimp, jr. fd; Joe Pillsbury, so.def; Zach Richard, jr. fd.

PROMISING NEWCOMERS: Noah Melker, sr. fd; Alex Lapointe, so.fd; Matt Risitano, so.fd; Quinten Piccolo, fr. fd; Drew Lemire, fr.def; Jay Wozniak, jr. goalie.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “For us, it will start from our goalie on out,” Belliveau said. “We’re still young, with just one senior, but we’ll be looking for scoring to come from last year’s top point getters, Zach Stimeling, Andrew Frothingham, and Matt Warrington.”

DIVISION III

HOLLIS BROOKLINE-DERRYFIELD

COACH: Joel Sanborn (first season).

LAST SEASON: 1-15, did not qualify for tournament.

RETURNING REGULARS: Alec MacEachen, sr. def; Dylan Terenzoni, sr. fd; Cam Bishop, sr. fd; Jared Sanborn, jr. fd; Nick Dapolito, jr. fd; Aiden Chretien, jr. fd; Salvatore Vella, so.fd; Colin MacDonald, so.fd; Michael McLaughlin, so.fd; Joey Oetjens, so.def., Chris Slater, sr. goalie.

OTHER RETURNING LETTER WINNERS: Andrew Nordstrom,jr.fd; Nathan Eisenhauer, sr. fd; Ryan Caparelli, Trey Sovie, Rylan Morgan, goalie

PROMISING NEWCOMERS: Conor Sanborn, fr; Torin White, fr.; Aiden Row, fr; Paul Vachon, fr; Matt McBean, fr; Jacob Roy, fr.; Matt Tourangeau, fr.; Jackson Cikota, fr.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “The team looks promising,” Sanborn said. “I have a good mix of upper classmen and with the newcomers, that gives us some depth.”

PEMBROKE-CAMPBELL

COACH: Marc Noel

LAST SEASON: 7-12, lost to Somersworth/Coe-Brown in first round.

RETURNING CAMPBELL PLAYERS: Mattieux Tremblay, sr. goalie; Matthew Dexter, so.fd; Jack Morgn, sr.fd; Nick Molinari, jr. fd.

PROMISING CAMPBELL NEWCOMERS: Charlie Tremblay, fr. def; Andrew Durfee, so.fd-def; Nathan Perry, fr. fd; Caleb Pelletier, jr. def.

COACH’S COMMENTS: “This is a really interesting team, and I’m excited about these guys and I think we can really rely on our goaltending,” Noel said.

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