Hollis Brookline-Derryfield's Jack Lager (4) and Paul Vachon (15) react to the final horn that ended the Warriors' 2-1 semifinal loss to Belmont-Gilford at Plymouth State's Hanaway Rink on Wednesday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

PLYMOUTH – They just couldn’t cash their checks.

The Hollis Brookline-Derryfield Warriors had no problem being physical against the younger, smaller Bulldogs from Belmont-Gilford in the Division III hockey semifinals on Wednesday night at Plymouth State’s Hanaway Rink.

The problem was, they couldn’t cash in on all the chances that edge gave them, thwarted time and time again by Bulldog sophomore goalie Colin Logan in a 2-1 loss that ends the Warriors season.

“We had our opportunities,” HBDS coach Joel Sanborn said. “We just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”

Save for a Jacob Roy game-tying, breakaway goal late in the first period, the Warriors were simply stonewalled time and time again by a steady goaltender.

“Isn’t he unreal?” Bulldogs coach Jason Parent said of Logan. “He’s a great kid, too. Stands on his head every time.”

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Warriors were determined all year to follow the gritty path to the finals, where they lost last year to Berlin-Gorham. They wanted that rematch, and the Mountaineers took care of their end with a 4-1 win over Lebanon-Stevens-Mt. Royal in the earlier semi.

But the Warriors, despite dominating the second period, and pumping 34 shots on Logan overall, weren’t able to join the title game party.

“Maybe we focused on Berlin too much, we should’ve focused on B-G,” Sanborn said with a chuckle. “You’ve got to take them one at a time, right?”

And one period at a time. The Warriors simply owned the second, the puck in the B-G zone for a good chunk of time. But as Sanborn said, “You’ve got to make your opportunities count when you get there, right?” Sanborn said. “We had a couple of really good chances down here in the second period.”

“The second period was about us being in the box,” Parent said. “When you have your top defenseman in the box for four minutes, you have to play guys who normally don’t play as much, other guys get tired. We’re also a smaller team, a younger team, freshmen and sophomores a lot of our guys. That physicality can get to you a little bit. I thought they did a good job staving it off and surviving.”

And then got rewarded in the third with the winning goal when Dylan Flannery poked home a rebound of a Owen Guertin shot from the point at just 1:39 of the third.

“Hey you know we work on that drill all week in practice,” Parent said. “Pucks to the net, find the puck and tap it in. We do it all the time. … We buried the ones that count.”

Hollis Brookline-Derryfield’s Conor Sanborn (24) gets tangled up with Belmont-Gilford’s Andrew Rowley as Bulldogs goalie Colin Logan keeps an wye on the loose puck during Wednesday night’s Division III semifinal at Plymouth State. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“The goal at the beginning of the third had eyes,” Sanborn said. “In a game like this, those are the goals that are going to get you, the dirty ones.”

The other one that counted came in the first period when B-G did its best skating, as Aiden Mckenzie redirected Evan Guerin’s blast from the right wing at 10:35 for a 1-0 lead. But two minutes later a slow pass was intercepted at the blue line and Roy skated all the way down and beat Logan to tie the game.

No one would have thought, especially watching that second period, that the Warriors would not score again. And when HBDS pulled goalie Cavin Quinn (23 stops) for the final minute-plus, they either couldn’t get the puck past Logan or even reach him.

“We had some huge blocks in the third period, diving out there,” Parent said. “That’s what the game’s about, right?

“They’ve got a good little goalie over there,” Sanborn said.

Who came up pretty big.