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Byram helps Sabers preserve tie with Berlin-Gorham

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Dec 24, 2019

Telegraph photo by TOM KING Souhegan goalie Elle Byram stops Berlin-Gorham's Grace Bradley up close for one of her 31 saves in Monday's 2-2 overtime tie at Conway Arena.

NASHUA — Elle Bryam has a new fan club.

The Berlin-Gorham fans were in amazement at the job she did between the pipes for the Souhegan High School girls hockey team during Monday’s 2-2 overtime tie at Conway Arena.

“That goalie was fantastic,” one fan was saying with everyone near him nodding their heads in agreement. “They ought to buy her a beer. Get her something.”

Well, there won’t be any allowable alcohol toast in the Saber netminder’s immediate future, holiday or not. But she sure got a lot of congrats from her teammates after her 31 saves, eight in overtime, preserved the point for her team.

“For sure,” Souhegan coach Kelli Braley said when asked if she has the feeling her team is in good hands going forward with Byram. “The overtime, just that last little series of three they put on her, bang-bang-bang, they were phenominal positional saves.

“She read things really well, was in the right spot at the right time, and I couldn’t have asked more of her.”

“We definitely had our chances,” Berlin-Gorham coach Craig Bartoli said. “It was a good, hard-fought battle.”

Byram was disappointed with the first goal she allowed at 12:45 of the first period, a shot inside the blue line by the 1-1-1 Mountaineers’ Mickailey Walsh. That made it 1-0 going into the first break.

“I missed a shot I could have saved, but things happen,” Bryam said. “In the overtime,I just tried to stay mentally stable. The worst thing you can do is fluctuate your mentality. You can’t be too excited, you can’t be too nervous, can’t be too down, you have to find that medium.”

While Byram did that, the Sabers (also 1-1-1) found their offense, first on a game-tying power play goal by Ryleigh Tobin just 22 seconds into the second period, and a go-ahead (2-1) tally by Abby Hawkes on a scramble in front of Mountaineer goalie Kaelyn Blais (22 stops), assisted by Claire Woodford, at 11:53 of the same period.

“The second period I thought was our best period of the three,” Braley said. “Earlier our wings were getting beat to pucks along the boards, we were letting Berlin just come in and take things so our breakout couldn’t happen. In the second period, that completely changed.”

“We just fell asleep in between the first and second period,” Bartoli said, “and came out flat. And penalties. That’s what happens.”

But that was it for the Sabers in terms of scoring. The Mountaineers’ Bryn Dube somehow willed the puck to go in during a tight scrum in front of Byram at 7:10 of the third, tying the game. Grace Bradley and Trinity Gendron were handed the assists, but Dube did the bulk of the work.

During the first four minutes of overtime, Byram was at her best. Then Tobin got going, putting pressure on Blais. But the best Saber chance came on a Woodford potential game-winning blast that beat Blais but hit the post. Ouch.

“Clare was our second leading goal scorer last year,” Braley said. “She wants to fill that role. She’s trying to find it, but she’s having to play a lot of defense right now while we’re getting our lines down.”

Bartoli said “It’s a tie thinking that we have a lot of work to do.”

Braley will take it, though.

“You’ve got to, it’s better than a loss,” she said.

Thanks in a big way to Byram, who Berlin-Gorham fans no doubt will remember in the rematch up north on Feb. 19.

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