H/B Middle School wins three straight

Hollis/Brookline Middle School hockey team swept a doubleheader against Portsmouth and Exeter and followed it up the next day with a win over Groton.

In the first game, H/B defeated Portsmouth 8-2 behind a hat trick by Cam Ricard. Also scoring goals for H/B were Brendan McVarish (2), Jack Shields, Dan Ash and Matt Mailloux. Tom Johnson and Connor MacDonald led the defensive effort and Travis Howard was solid in goal.

In the Game 2, H/B shut out Exeter 6-0. Once again leading the scoring was Ricard with three goals, while Ash, Shields and Kyle Stephens rounded out the scoring. Howard was in net for the shutout.

In the third game, H/B beat Groton 6-1. Ricard tallied four goals to lead the offense. Mike Harney and Mailloux each tallied a goal with assists to Kyle Rogers, Ash and Harney. Ian McNamara, Johnson and Mitchell Young led the defensive effort combined with another solid performance in net by Howard.

Nashua Squirt Majors go 1-1-1

The Nashua Squirt Majors lost to the Avalanche 2000 AAAs 4-0 in GSL action. However, the boys regrouped quickly and with less than two hours between games, to beat the Vipers 11-5.

Eric Langley led the team with three goals and three assists. Joey Paige and Quinn Tucker also had big games both earning hat tricks. Austin King scored the other two goals unassisted. Eric Pica and Ryan Fitzgerald provided assists on two of the 11 goals. Yegor Bublik was great between the pipes, stopping several shots.

The Majors faced the Manchester Flames in a back-and-forth GSL game. Langley kept his streak going with his 1-1-2, scoring the first goal of the game assisted by Nate Newton. Later in the first, Tucker scored on a power play assisted by Pica and Langley. Nashua could not hold the lead in the second and with the score tied 2-2 heading into the third, Owen Hastings in front of the net gets the deflection off the boards to knock it in assisted by Tucker. Hastings then returned the favor and passed it off to Tucker for the final goal of the game to tie it up 4-4.

Hollis Cavaliers Mite 1

In Dual State League action, the Hollis Cavaliers Mite 1 defeated Acton-Boxborough Mite 1, 6-1. The front line of Shannon Paquette, Trent Costa and Isaac Rogers combined for all six Cavaliers goals. The Cavaliers’ other forward line of Benjamin Young, Austin Ciszek and Kyle Hamilton skated exceptionally well. The Cavaliers were able to shut down the Acton-Boxborough offense with superb defensive play by the Cavs’ defensive pairs of Max Sear/Sean Kelly and Dean Poulin/TJ Vitullo. The Cavs’ goalie, Ben Goolsby, held a shutout until the final seconds of the game.

Panthers win first-place battle, twice

The Nashua Panthers Bantam II youth hockey team took sole possession of first place in Tier IV over the last two weeks.

Nashua defeated the visiting Manchester Flames 5-1 at Conway Arena before shutting out NH East 4-0 at Philips Exeter Academy.

Manchester struck first with a deflected shot from the point. The Panthers quickly tied the score when Brett Estrella one-timed a feed from Ben Woodward. In the second period Nashua took control of the game with two shorthanded goals, one each by Alkim Dato and Stevie Barton. The Panthers put the game to bed in the third period with goals by Estrella and Ben Hadley. Woodward finished the game with a playmaker (three assists) while Jacob Boisvert and Mike Powers each recorded a helper.

Nashua then traveled to Exeter for a first-place showdown with the NH East Eagles. Each team entered the game with a single loss in league play. The Panthers scored first on the power play with Powers scoring a goal on a breakout feed from AJ Bender and Barton. Nashua doubled its lead in the second period on a shorthanded goal by Dato (his second of the weekend). Tim Trudel and John Butler added empty netters in the third period to ice the game for Nashua. The defense of Jake Fagan, Mike Belanger, Declan Stone and Barton helped goalie Bender notch his fifth Granite State League (sixth overall) shutout of the season.

Nashua took to the ice the following weekend and split a pair of games. The Panthers defeated the NH East Eagles 5-3 and were shut out by Lynnfield (Mass.) 3-0.

In a rematch of the top two teams in Granite State Bantam Tier IV, the Nashua Panthers again defeated the NH East Eagles. Powers got things started when he converted a feed from Butler. Powers doubled the lead with a shorthanded goal, assisted by Trudel. After the Eagles put one in the net, the Panthers answered with two goals, one by Dato and a third from Powers. NH East wouldn’t go away, scoring two goals of its own to pull within one. Woodward put the nail in the coffin with a nifty little wrist shot that went top shelf. Butler finished the game with a playmaker.

The shorthanded Panthers were unable to beat the Lynnfield goalie in a game in Haverhill, Mass. The loss dropped Nashua to 4-5-1 in Valley League play.

Nashua Mite II wins two

The Nashua Panthers Mite II went 2-0, notching a pair of wins over Groton (5-2) and Reading (6-2).

Groton had bedeviled the Panthers in the previous four meetings, defeating the Panthers twice and tying them twice. But Nashua started this one off with a bang. Ashok Arun lit the lamp 12 seconds into the game for the Panthers. Nathan Arsenault and Nick Dapolito added two goals each, with assists being chipped in by Jake Hall, Sean Morrissey, Nick Wollrath, Liam Smith and Kelly Downie.

Against Reading, the game stayed close until the third period when the Panthers banged home four unanswered goals to put it away. Hall earned his first ever hat trick, with Arun, Dapolito and Ryan Scanlon potting one each for Nashua. Wollrath, Scanlon, Hall and Danielle Chisholm all had assists for the Panthers.

Goaltender Evan Hall was a force between the pipes in both games.

Sports Arena 1996 AAA Flames have strong two-week stretch

The Sports Arena AAA Manchester Flames defeated the New England Moose 8-2 at the JFK Coliseum. The Flames’ Mike Donlan scored a first period goal with assists to Matt Moriarty and Andrew Kehas. Tied 1-1 after one period, the Flames took a two-goal lead in the second on goals by Connor Powell and Kehas. Assists went to John Foote and Moriarty. Five third period goals broke the game open. Powell and Foote set up Josh Roy for a goal just 24 seconds into the period. Additional goals were scored by Mark Feeney, Kehas, Roy and Powell. Third period assists by Moriarty, Donlan, Powell and Tim Tetrault capped the scoring for the Flames.

The Flames tied the Boston Junior Bruins in Boston. The Flames scored all their goals in the second period. Goal scorers were Donlan, Foote and Roy. Powell had two assists and Roy had an assist to go with his goal.

Goalies Mitchell Schirch and Ian Beliveau combined for a shutout in the Flames’ 3-0 victory over the Middlesex Braves. After a scoreless first, Moriarty and Tetrault set up Feeney for a goal. Moriarty added an unassisted second period goal to make it 2-0 after two periods of play. Foote scored off a pass from Powell and Kehas to close out the scoring.

The 1996 AAA Flames beat the 1995 AA Flames 3-1. The 1996 team took a 2-1 lead in the first period on goals by Noah Duplessis and Powell. Donlan scored in the third period to add to the lead. Assists in the game went to Donlan, Neil Soucy, Parker Anderson and Duplessis.

The Flames traveled to Conway Arena in Nashua to play the Nashua Pro Ambition. In a game highlighted by excellent goaltending by Schirch and Beliveau, the Flames and Pro Ambition skated to a 2-2 tie. The Flames took the lead on a first period goal by Moriarty (assisted by Kehas). Nashua battled back to take a 2-1 lead late into the third period. A goal by Powell that was set up by Roy and Foote earned the Flames a tie.

After a scoreless first period, the Flames erupted for four unanswered goals in the second period on their way to a 5-4 win over the Berlin Sabres. Foote and Powell each scored a goal and Donlan scored two. Assists went to Roy (2), Powell (2), Moriarty, Anderson and Donlan.

Third period action was crazy. The Sabres scored four and the Flames’ Powell scored his second of the game with assists to Roy and Anderson.

The Flames also picked up a 4-2 non-conference win over the PHD Elites at the Dracut Ice Hut. A first period goal by Powell got things started. Duplessis set up Donlan for a second period goal. With the game on the line in the third period, Roy (who had set up the game’s first goal) scored the eventual game-winner off a set up by Powell and Tetrault. Powell scored an insurance goal off a Roy pass to wrap up the scoring. Schirch was solid in goal for the Flames.