Bishop Guertin's Jenna Lynch (15) was in the thiick of the action on Sunday night in the NH Girls High School Hockey All-Star Invitational at Tri-Town Arena in Hooksett, scoring the lone goal for Team Dunn in a 4-1 loss to Team Flanagan. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HOOKSETT – Jenna Lynch looked up stunned at the size of the crowd early Sunday evening at Tri-Town Arena, as the stands were about three quarters full.

“To have this many people show up to watch girls hockey,” she said. “When you come out here and see so many people in the stands, you just get fired up, and you’re so excited to play no mater what.”

No matter, win or lose. Lynch, the Telegraph Player of the Year who was a huge catalyst for Bishop Guertin’s undefeated state title season a few months ago, scored the lone goal for Team Dunn in a 4-1 loss to Team Flanagan in the Freshmen-Sophomore Game of the second annual New Hampshire Girls High School Hockey All-Star Invitational.

Lynch certainly stood out on the ice, and made some news off it, as she told The Telegraph she’ll be spending her junior school year at Guertin playing hockey for the Cardinals instead of returning to Junior Hockey, where she played two years ago before the pandemic hit, curtailing that level’s season a year ago. That’s how Lynch ended up playing for the Cards this past season.

“I’ll be playing for BG,” Lynch said. “After last year, I’m psyched to come back. Last year was amazing.”

Lynch won’t miss Junior Hockey, because she’d rather play for her school.

“The level is good, but just the chance to play for your school, your high school, which is awesome,” she said. “I get to walk around the school, and everybody says ‘Hey, I saw the game.’ You don’t get that culture (at juniors). Our school spirit is high.”

Lynch said she wasn’t sure what to expect when she first played for the Cardinals last year.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be the highest pace level I was used to,” she said. “But we went out and dominated. Our team was the most tight team you ever met. Just our team chemistry and bond, it was great.”

Lynch said she liked the competition from BG’s two games with Hanover last year, both which had gone down to the wire, the second being an OT win in the semis.

“That’s the competition I’m used to,” she said. “Our coach (Scott Ciszek), he was sending us out shift after shift, expecting our best. And when it comes down to it, a semifinal game, everyone wants to play their best, everyone was playing at the highest level possible. It was great.”

Lynch first began playing hockey when she first saw an outdoor rink in Brookline at age 5. And it’s been a love affair ever since.

Sunday night’s game was fun for Lynch. “It was high paced, it was great to see the best New Hampshire girls out on the ice together,” she said. “It was great to have the freshman-sophomore (game). So many good girls coming up, fast, and it was high paced. It was a low scoring game, too. Couple of goals were bounces, weird ones. But it was low scoring, and showed just how close (the competition) is.”

One of the benefits of playing in Sunday night’s event was so players could be seen by college scouts, etc. Lynch has begun the process of recruiting, “and I’m excited to see what happens.”

Norwich is interested, at the Division III level. Lynch has also expressed an interest to play Division I hockey, hoping she’ll be a good fit for Northeastern, or perhaps Boston University. “That’s the main goal,” she said.

And Lynch certainly knows a lot about goals – reaching them and scoring them.

LAST GAME FOR HULT

With just under two minutes to play in Sunday night’s second game, the Junior-Senior game of the NH Girls Hockey All-Star Invitational, Lynch’s former BG teammate, recent grad Lindsay Hult, fired a shot high over the Team King goal during Team Mounsey’s 5-3 win.

She realized that would likely be the final shot of her hockey career.

“I didn’t really realize it until the last couple of minutes that this is my last organized game,” said Hult, who will play lacrosse at Holy Cross next year. “It was fun. It was good competition, I was glad it ended at that.”

Hult has been playing hockey, she said, since she was five or six years old.

“It’s over,” she said. “I hope I’ll be able to play somehow in college – pick up a game somewhere. It was (sad), but I’ll be back.”

GOODE PLEASED

Last nght’s event is the brainchild of Nashua businessman and former Silver Knights VP Jon Goode, and he was happy with the second rendition after it was very limited a year ago due to the pandemic.

“A big success,” said Goode. “Not as strict rules, and it was great putting the freshman-sophomore game together, then the juniors-seniors, keep that system going.”

Goode said he hopes to get the Olympians the teams are named after, former players like Tricia Dunn and Tara Mounsey, to come to next year’s event and sign autographs to enhance the fan experience. This year the man who replaced Rene Rancourt as the Bruins national anthem singer, Todd Angilly, was a special guest as he sang the anthem before both games. The first one Angilly had to compete with a loud torrential rain hittng the Tri-Town roof.

GAMES ON NASHUA ETV

Last night’s event couldn’t be televised live, but both games can be seen on Nashua ETV’s You Tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/NashuaETV Monday at 7 p.m. (Frosh-Soph game), and 9 p.m. (Jr.-Sr. Game).

The games will also replay on Nashua ETV Channel 99 this Wednesday at 7:30 and 9 p.m., respectively