Telegraph photo by TOM KING Hollis Brookline-Derryfield's Cole Giersch sprawls on the ice along with John Stark-Hopkinton's Tyler Scordo (22) and goalie Caysen Allard as JSH's Nick Osborne tries to corral the loose puck during Saturday's 2-2 overtime tie at Conway Arena.

NASHUA — The slogan they’ve used all season long, especially on social media, has been “Why Not Us?”

Well, for the 13-4-1 Hollis Brookline-Derryfield Warriors, Saturday’s 2-2 hockey overtime tie at Conway Arena with John Stark-Hopkinton showed reasons for and against the locals winning a Division III championship.

For: They dominated the General Hawks on Saturday, rallying from a 2-0 deficit and sending the game to overtime on Paul Vachon’s goal with 32.3 seconds left in regulation. HBD outshot JSH by a wide 46-20 margin.

Against: The Warriors, who should be seeded either No. 2 or No. 3 and likely host a quarterfinal game here next Saturday, could run into a hot goalie in the tourney like Stark-Hopkinton’s Caysen Allard, who was unbelievable with 44 stops – including three on Warrior breakaways in the overtime, two of them shorthanded.

“That kind of stuff happpens,” Vachon said. “(Allard) was pretty good on the glove. … He was a tough goalie to solve.

“But at this point we feel like we can compete with anyone in the league. … We just go from there, one game at a time.”

And hopefully they won’t have to see Allard again. They may not, until a possible final, if the seedings go as expected as the General-Hawks finish 12-5-1, good for likely No. 4.

“Caysen played great today,” Stark-Hopkinton coach Doug Kolehmainan said. “He was actually the only reason we were in that game today.”

“He (Allard) played out his mind,” Warriors coach Joel Sanborn said. “There were a couple of times I thought the thing should have been in the back of the net. Two or three times in that third period. … I think they’ve bought into it, ‘Why not us’. I think they believe. We’ve played everybody in the state really tough, games like that.”

The General Hawks were up 2-0 after two periods, however, on a power play goal by Ethan Molnar (assists by Carter Pike and Benny Madden) at 7:58 of the first and an even strength goal at 6:11 of the second by Madden, assisted by Nick Martel.

But the Warriors rallied in the third, Cole Giersch scoring a power play goal off a centering pass by Aidan Chretien at 1:37 of the third, and of course Vachon’s dramatic tally.

“I think the kids were a little disappointed at themselves in the first two periods,” Sanborn said. “I think they came out looking down the road a little bit. But they hung in there. We got that quick one in the beginning of the third period and that lit a fire under them a little bit.”

Vachon actually wasn’t going to be on the ice when he scored his dramatic game-tying goal with HBD netminder Chris Slater (18 stops, including couple big ones on JSH’s OT power play) pulled. But he lobbied Sanborn and got his wish.

“I was after the rebound,” Vachon said of his score. “Hard work and dedication paid off in the end for us.”

Sure, why not the Warriors? We’ll find out beginning next weekend.

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