Hollis Brookline-Derryfield's Jesse Gertz (2) battles Lebanon's Hunter Christian during Saturday's 6-0 Warriors win at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – There’s a little extra energy in the Hollis Brookline Derryfield Warriors’ collective skating stride these days.

It showed in Saturday’s 6-0 dominating win over fellow Division III hockey contender Lebanon-Stevens-Mount Royal at Conway Arena.

The Warriors, in the middle of three games in three days, were coming off a Friday night game at John Stark, yet you’d never know it. What’s pushing them as they’re now 11-3 after their seventh win in their last eight games? Perhaps it has something with last year’s 5-1 title game loss to Berlin-Gorham.

“I think they’re feeding off last year,” HBDS coach Joel Sanborn said. “I think they got shortchanged, I think they know it, and I think they’re looking for a little redemption.”

They also were eager to pay LSMR back for a 7-3 loss five weeks ago in the Upper Valley. The Warriors led 2-0 after one and 4-0 after two, and were led by Tate Flint’s two goals.

But the back-breaker was a breakaway goal by Jacob Roy with 7.9 seconds left in the first, assisted by Aidan Rowe’s feed up ice.

“That makes it tough,” Lebanon-Stevens-Mount Royal coach Jim Damren said, his team now 10-4-1. “If it’s 1-0 at the end of the first it might be a different game. They’re a strong hockey team. We never found our legs, we never got anything going.”

Damren’s team, which felt it got robbed in the first when one of its shots may have tucked under the crossbar with no call, also played Friday night. To make matters worse, it is missing its captain, Griffin Auch, who had had 16 points in six games before he suffered a broken clavicle.

Meanwhile, the Warriors were able to walk in deep on Raiders goalie Toby Cromwell. Example: Just over seven minutes into the second period, Paul Vachon put a shot on Cromwell, and as he dove to make one of his 29 saves, the puck sat in the crease out of his reach. Flint beat him to the puck for the easy goal and a 3-0 Warriors lead.

“We work on that in practice, getting pucks to the net,” Sanborn said. “We know coming up into the tournament, with all the pretty goals, there’s going to be some dirty ones and we’re going to have to go in and get ’em.”

And Flint is a player to do it.

“He’s a big motivator, likes to play physical,” Sanborn said of Flint, a Derryfield student. “He’s a good addition from last year.”

Vachon gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead 4:29 into the game, assisted by Jesse Gertz and Kyle Sanborn. Before the second period ended, Emmet Chretien, assisted by Bryson Giersch, made it 4-0 at 9:37. The way the Warriors were playing, there was no way the visitors were going to make up the deficit. They got just 13 shots on HBDS goalie Cavan Quinn and were physically beaten up by the Warriors as well.

“They marked this one on the calendar,” Sanborn said of his team, saying he didn’t use the fact the Warriors have another game today at Conway Arena vs. Kennett, a makeup, affect his lineup thinking. “We had to take care of business today. In the third period, we got all four lines out there.”

Sanborn and Flint added goals in the third (Roy and Jack Lager assists). Some, including Damren, say Berlin-Gorham, now 14-1, are still the division’s team to beat, and they already own a win over HBDS. But don’t discount the Warriors, who besides the motivation intangible have another ingredient that was on display yesterday.

“I think there’s a little more grit in this room than there’s been in the past few years,” Sanborn said.

Will all of this add up to at least a Warrior return to the title game? Stay tuned, and keep your head up on the ice.