Hollis Brookline-Derryfield's Paul Vachon (15) flips the puck toward Alvirne-Milford goalie Trent Scarbro, who is getting help from Kevin Sullivan (21) during Saturday's gme at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – March starts in a day, and usually by this time Hollis Brookline-Derryfield hockey coach Joel Sanborn usually has a good feel for his team.

Not this year.

That’s because, due to the pandemic, the Warriors have played only four regular season games, ending with Saturday’s 5-2 win over Alvirne-Milford at Conway Arena. They missed half their scheduled season (four more games) due to a pandemic pause that they just emerged from this past week.

“It’s been a tough season,” Sanborn said. “I’d like to be peaking right now; instead we’re just trying to pull things together.”

And now at 2-1-1 they will go into the Division III tournament Wednesday hosting Sanborn at Conway Arena. Alvirne-Milford, meanwhile, hasn’t played too many more games, and finished the short pre-tourney campaign at 1-5. They’ll visit Merrimack on Wednesday at West Side Arena in a Division II first round game.

Alvirne-Milford coach Dave Thibeault had a team that was obviously smaller in stature than the Warriors, and he wasn’t happy that fact wasn’t taken into consideration by the officials.

“To be honest, I think the refs didn’t really do a good job, I thought they were one-sided,” he said. “I think they missed a lot of calls and some of the penalties we got were three or four times after taking trips or cross checks and what not and they hadn’t called it. And our kids would have enough and next thing you know we’re in the box.

“It is what it is, nothing we can do about it, but I think the kids showed some heart today. … We just spent too much time in the box, your top guys get tired, and that’s what happened in the third period.”

HB has some veterans that should help with their process. Cole Giersch had a hat trick yesterday, including the go-ahead power play goal (3-2) with just 13.2 seconds left in the second period.

“It does help, we’re still trying to find our niche, our chemistry, you know?” Sanborn said. “It was nice to get a ‘W’. I’m sure the kids were excited and it was nice to get back out on the ice.

“We had good energy today. We’re still getting our legs under us, still trying to get things back together. But the energy was good today, I thought, and we’ll go from there.”

Giersch gave the Warriors a 2-1 lead at 6:42 of the second, assisted by Joey Oetjens. The Admirals however tied it at 11:36 on a goal by Hayden Ricard assisted by Cade Bouchard.

However, that was it for A-M. The Warriors scored two insurance goals in the third, one by Giersch midway through (7:49) and one earlier by Sal Vella in a scramble in front of Admirals young goalie Trent Scarbro, who had 27 stops.

The Admirals actually opened the scoring just 2:27 into the game, Matty Ryan beating Warriors netminder Ryan Morgan (23 saves) with an assist from Ricard. HBD evened things two minutes later on a goal by Tyler Lautieri, assisted by Isaac Winsor.

“Overall, a much better effort,” Thibeault said. “We’ll get there. I think next year will be a decent year for us. We’re a small team. They had 30 pounds and an average of three or four inches on us. As the game gets more physical, it takes it’s toll.”

“A lot of work to do for Wednesday,” Sanborn said. “We’re just looking forward to the tournament.

“We played (Sanborn) earlier in the season, they gave us a tough game (1-1 tie). The way this season’s going, you never know.”

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