Nashua North-Souhegan's Chase McBride celebrates his goal much to the chagrin of Merrimack goalie James Brew and teammate Keoni Monte (10) during Friday's Backyard Brawl tourney game at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – They gathered for a team photo on the ice immediately after their 7-2 win over Merrimack on Friday at Conway Arena in the final game of the Backyard Brawl hockey tourney.

“When you win a Christmas tournament, that’s what you do,” Nashua North-Souhegan hockey coach Chris Zarlenga said with a bit of a grin.

Except there’s one problem, and Zarlenga certainly was aware of it – technically, the Saber-Titans didn’t win it, even though they dominated the event, winning three games by a combined 19-4 score. One could argue that they were the best team, but the title by tiebreaker rule had to go to rival Nashua South-Pelham, which only allowed two goals in two games (2-1, 4-1) and received a forfeit win in the third thanks to the Monadnock co-op withdrawing before the event even began. The North and South co-op teams tied with 8.5 points out of a possible 9 in the tourney, but goals allowed – even though it was just two games for the Kings – was the tiebreaker.

“That,” Zarlenga said with another grin, “isn’t the way we see it.”

Theoretically, one might be able to consider them co-champions, as N-S (3-0) and Hollis Brookline-Derryfield (0-3) were the only two teams that played three games in the event thanks to the withdrawal. They can settle it when they meet for a game that counts on Jan. 10, right?

When that happens, the Kings will have to find a way to stop the Saber-Titans dynamic duo of Jacob Landry and Chase McBride. They each had hat tricks yesterday for the second day in a row, Landry finishing with a whopping 10 goals in the tournament.

“They scored six out of their seven goals, pretty crazy,” Merrimack coach Dan Belliveau said. “Good hockey players. They’ve (North-Souhegan) been developing their team the last few years, been on the precipice and now they’re playing pretty strong.”

The Saber-Titans went 1-1 in the regular season before winning these three mini games consisting of two 20-minute halves. So far, it’s been a fun skate for Landry & Co. Landry had three assists yesterday as well.

“Lots of fun,” Landry said, adding “This just helps our team confidence. We went into this tournament wanting to work on things for our season and get better as a team.”

“They are having fun and that’s all we can ask for,” Zarlenga said. “Besides that line we have good depth. I trust any line to go out there against anybody, and I think we showed that today by shutting down a pretty good team.”

They did it by jumping out to a 3-0 lead, McBride scoring twice in the first 10 minutes, and then Cody Lund making it 3-0 at 13:30. Merrimack answered with a goal by Brayden Guagliumi two minutes later, but Landry ended the period with two goals, one shorthanded, and it was 5-1 at the half. Basically a done deal, as Merrimack goalie James Brew was a busy guy, constantly seeing McBride and Landry coming at him, with 23 saves on the day.

Zarlenga’s crew showed it can score with a blowout win in its opener against a Bishop Brady co-op; Pinkerton held it down to just two goals a few days later. So the tourney was a time to establish some things.

“I think that Pinkerton game we got down on ourselves when we got scored on, we weren’t used to it after coming out in the first game,” he said. ”

Zach Veilleux had 21 stops in the Saber-Titan net; Merrimack’s other goal came in the second half by Conor Dunn, assisted by Guagliumi. The Tomahawks, whose two-year tourney reign comes to an end, are 3-0 in Division II. They’ll actually be back at Conway on Jan. 22 to face the Saber-Titans in a game that counts.

“We use this tournament as kind of a bounce-off, a sounding board to get ready for the rest of the season,” Belliveau said. “The break is a break. After the first three week of the regular season, now you kind of have to shake that rust off again and get back out there. We felt we played pretty well; defensively we have some things to work on.”

It’s quite possible the Kings would have earned the full three points against Monadnock-Fall Mountain-ConVal anyway, but it was tough to go last minute with five teams. In any event, HBDS coach/tourney director Joel Sanborn hinted he’s looking at a possible format change for next year as a safeguard. But right now the Kings rule, although the Saber-Titans think they did. At least in theory.

“We’ll buy (Saber-Titan players) a trophy if we have to,” Zarlenga said, still grinning. “But that’s what happened.”

ALVIRNE-MILFORD TAKES THIRD

The Admirals rolled past Sanborn’s Warriors, 6-0, as sophomore Brandon Ganas had a hat trick, Brandon Callahan had a pair and Braydon Atwood scored one. Senior James Nemeth had two assists.

Admirals goalie Kian Corcoran had nine saves while HBDS goalie Rachel Irving had 12. The Admirals finish the tourney with six points out of nine as they recovered from a tough one (7-1) vs. North-Souhegan on Thursday.

“Much better effort today all around,” Alvirne-Milford coach Dave Thibeault said.

HBDS went winless, but the silver lining was they played North-Souhegan the best of anyone (a 5-2 loss).

FINAL TOURNEY STANDINGS

1.Nashua South-Pelham (8.5)*. 1. Nashua North-Souhegan (8.5). 3. Alvirne -Milford (6.0). 4. Merrimack (3.5). 5. Hollis Brookline-Derryfield (0.5).

*Wins title on goals-against tiebreaker, 2-5.