Telegraph photo by TOM KING Keene's Ethan Russell can't pry the puck away from the skate of Nashua South-Pelham's Cody Morton as goalie Nate Serrentino looks to make a save during Thursday's 4-3 Blackbird win in the Conway Arena Holiday Tournament.

NASHUA — The hosts were simply too gracious on the opening day Thursday of the Conway Arena Holiday Hockey Tournament.

Both Nashua South-Pelham and North-Souhegan came out on the losing end, the Kings falling to Keene 4-3 and the Saber-Titans bowing to Merrimack, 3-0.

But if you’re looking who controls their own destiny for a clear path to the finals, look at the day’s winners: Hollis Brookline-Derryfield, Merrimack, and Keene.

The Warriors, who easily got past Alvirne-Milford 8-1 in the opening game, will take on Merrimack in the first game today at 11:10 a.m. The winner will have a spot in Saturday’s title game.

So will Keene if the Blackbirds can get past North-Souhegan in today’s third game at 2:30 p.m. The Kings, meanwhile, and the Admirals, who square off in the middle 12:50 p.m. game, will hope for tiebreaker help, depending on who wins. Same for the Saber-Titans of they can knock off Keene, which was the last tourney winner in 2017.

“We’ve always treated this tournament like a really good way to develop what we want to do throughout the season,” Keene coach Chris McIntosh said after his ace player, senior Jerred Tattersal, scored the tiebreaking goal and assisted on the eventual game-winner. “If we earned a third game, we’d be very excited about that.”

Merrimack coach Dan Belliveau calls the Division III Warriors “a very good team … If we can keep (their senior leaders) playing like this and healthy, we’ll be just fine.”

Here’s a look at Thursday’s results:

KEENE 4,

NASHUA SOUTH-PELHAM 3

The final game of the day was the most entertaining, with the Blackbirds rallying from a 2-1 deficit in the second half as Ethan Russell tied it on a power play goal at 4:06, just 1:18 after the Kings’ Tyler Martin gave the locals the lead.

Then Tattersal took over with a blistering wrist shot that South-Pelham netminder Nate Serrentino (a superb 36-saves) had no chance on at 12:09 for a 3-2 lead.

He then set up teammate Joe Walsh at 15:06 for a 4-2 lead.

“I don’t think it’s any surprise when you leave watching a hockey game with Keene High School, No. 3 is on your mind,” McIntosh said. “He creates so many chances, has so many opportunities. … Fun to watch. A lot of fun to watch.”

Some may say the same about the Kings’ Johnny Pinksten, who scored 11 seconds after Walsh’s goal to put the locals to within 4-3.

“‘Tino did a great job in net, we just couldn’t get the puck out,” South-Pelham coach Shawn Connors said. “They’re (the Blackbirds) a great team, and they’re a big team. They’ve got size, and we’re a kind of younger team with smaller guys. I think that kind of hurt us a little bit, too.”

The teams traded first-half goals, Ben Brown for Keene and Cam Cole for the Kings. Keene goalie Jacob Russell had 23 stops.

MERRIMACK 3,

NORTH-SOUHEGAN 0

The Tomahawks got great play out of their top players. Zach Stimeling scored unassisted at 13:42 of the first half, and with three seconds left in the half the Tomahawks’ Kyle Dunn scored, assisted by Dylan Sadowski, to give Merrimack a 2-0 lead.

That seemed to put the Saber-Titans in a funk, as Merrimack dominated the first six minutes or so of the second half and got a huge powere play goal by Joe Pillsbury, assisted by Andrew Frothingham. Stimeling was also credited with an assist.

“We didn’t stick to the systems,” Saber-Titans coach Matt Osgood said. “They know what to do, we didn’t execute today.”

It made life tough for North-Souhegan goalie Colin Duckless, who had 30 stops. But Merrimack’s Ben Hardy was also big, with 26 saves of his own as the Saber-Titans got their second wind the later part of the second half.

“I’m looking for more of the same out of my team,” Belliveau said of today’s meeting vs. the Warriors.

HOLLIS BROOKLINE-DERRYFIELD 8,

ALVIRNE-MILFORD 1

The Warriors led 3-0 after one 20-minute half and then the rout was on. They got two goals and two assists from Paul Vachon, two goals and an assist by Sal Vella, and single goals by Michael McLaughlin, Torin White, Cole Giersch and Colin MacDonald. Tyler Lautieri had two assists while goalie Chris Slater had an easy day with 22 stops. Alvirne-Milford’s lone goal came from Matt Ryan, while Admirals goalie Brayden King had 24 stops.

But more importantly, the Warriors were the only team on the day with zero penalty minutes, giving them a good tiebreaker advantage if necessary.

“We talked about that before the game,” Sanborn said.

And his team also was 2-0 in the regular season.

“We are off to a good start,” Sanborn said. “We’re well rounded with upper classmen and some good freshmen. It’s an optimistic group. We’re just having a little fun.”

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