Nashua North-Souhegan players celebrate one of their 10 goals during Wednesday night's season-opening win over the Bisthop Brad co-op on Wednesday night at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – For openers, it couldn’t have gone any better for new coach Chris Zarlenga and his Nashua High School North-Souhegan hockey team on Wednesday night.

The Saber-Titans got four goals and three assists from Jacob Landry en route to a 10-0 win over Bishop Brady-Merrimack Valley-Concord Christian at Conway Arena.

This is something this team, which just missed out on the tournament last year, isn’t used to.

“People are going to get used to it this year, that’s for sure,” Saber-Titans captain Chase McBride said. “Good lineup, we’ve got depth all the way through, a bunch of kids putting in the work in practice. I’m hyped for the season.”

And why shouldn’t he be? The Saber-Titans outshot the Brady-based co-op by a whopping 52-6 margin. Not even Zarlenga, making his high school head coaching debut, could have asked for anything better.

“Couldn’t,” he said. “That’s a testament to the last two weeks of work. We have skated, worked through and through for two weeks, and that just showed the work they’ve put in. This is a different team than two-weeks ago already.”

Callen Cullity got things going just 2:05 into the contest, beating BBMVCCA goalie Justin Doyle (42 stops) with assists from McBride and Landry. Landry stole the puck and quickly scored at 9:48 to make it 2-0. Then you got the idea of what kind of night it would be when North-Souhegan two goals 19 seconds apart with a minute left in the period, one from Landry and another by Kyle D’Silva (a deflected blue line shot) to make it 4-0. It was over.

“Things just clicked, right? That’s what we want,” Zarlenga said. “This team is tight, they pull for each other. I don’t think (Brady) are a bad team at all, they’ve got good goaltending and good top line. We just exploited some weaknesses of theirs. We have a very fast team, and that’s what it is, right?”

Conditioning was a huge emphasis for Zarlenga, who was an assistant in the program two years ago. The Saber-Titans flew, and are probably still going.

It was 6-0 after two, thus the third was running time. Besides Landry, the scoring went like this: McBride had a goal and four assists; Cullity had two goals and an assist, and single scores went to D’Silva, Chris Holland and Jevon Anson.

John Joyce had two assists while Connor O’Neil, Andrew Cullinane and 12 and D’

Silva also had assists on the night. Zach Veilleux could have had picnic for the most part, having to make just six saves for the shutout. Zarlenga wasn’t happy with some chippiness in the second period (three penalties), but things got back on track in the third.

“Keeping these kids on track is all you have to do,” Zarlenga said. “Second period we lost some of our discipline. … Third period it disappeared. That’s all we can ask for is to correct things and move on.”

Nashua North-Souhegan’s Connor O’Neil, left, handles a check from Bishop Brady-MV-CCA’s Jason Doyle during Wednesday night’s game at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Teams will now be wary of the top line of Cullity-McBride-Landry.

“Phenomenal,” Zarlenga said. “That’s a line that is probably one of the fastest in the state. Again, their hard work every day and their leadership, they have these guys buzzing around at practice because they’re just an example.”

Was this an example of what the Saber-Titans can do? It will get tougher for sure down the road as Pinkerton comes to town on Saturday before there’s a break and a holiday tourney (the Hollis Brookline Backyard Brawl).

This is a game Zarlenga will remember forever, but he knows one game does not make a season.

“A win here does not define our season, just like a loss doesn’t define our season,” he said. “For all I know, we’re 0-0 and on to Saturday.”

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