Former Hollis Brookline-Derryfield goalie Rachel Irving makes a save for Team Dunn duirng the Fifth Annual NH High School Girls Hockey Invitational at Tri-Town Arena Sunday in Hooksett. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HOOKSETT – Gracie Menicci may be committed to Plymouth State University for lacrosse, but she doesn’t want to hang up the skates yet.

Sunday night she proved why, as she was named the Top Senior in the Fifth Annual New Hampshire High School Girls Hockey Invitational All-Star Game.

“I hope so,” she said of her future chances of staying in the game, as she will also attempt to walk on the PSU women’s hockey team. “For sure, yes.”

The event continued with the two-game format, the first being a freshmen-sophomore game, and then came the junior-senior edition. Menicci had a goal and an assist for Team Dunn, her goal coming with 10.7 seconds left in the first period to give Team Dunn (named after former Olympian Tricia Dunn of Derry) a 2-1 lead over Team Mounsey (named after Concord OlympianTara Mounsey).

Ironically, Team Dunn saw a 5-2 third period lead turn into a 6-5 loss as Team Mounsey scored four goals in the last 4:51, the game winner coming from Atkinson’s Brook Harb (Cushing Academy) with 1:09 to play. Harb, with a hat trick, was named the top junior.

“It was amazing, I didn’t expect it,” Menicci said of her award. “There were so many good girls on my team and the other team, it could have been anyone. I was very excited.”

It was Menicci’s first time in the game. The recent BG grad is from Pepperell, Mass., and technically only New Hampshire residents are eligible to play, but according to the game’s founder and organizer Jon Goode of Nashua, the fact Menicci played four years of NH high school hockey at BG and was a First Team All-State player, the selection committee made an exception as she was as big a part of girls hockey in the state as anyone.

“I was nervous coming into it, the season being over for a couple of months,” Menicci said. “I tried to get ice time as much as I could. And playing with prep (school) girls, and girls I played against in the regular season, I was nervous. But I felt I could hang with them and did well. It was exciting to meet new people and play with new people, especially good girls.”

Menicci will try to “make sure I stay on the ice” and work on skills, attend clinics, and “I’ll definitely look out for other games I can participate in.”

Menicci’s now former BG teammate, Riley Goldthwaite, who will be a senior for the Cards, also played on Team Dunn while former Hollis Brookline-Derryfield goalie Rachael Irving played for a period and a half for Team Dunn.

Team Mounsey had Nashua’s Kenzley Goode (Cushing Academy), a defenseman see significant time.

Bishop Guertin’s Carly Green of Milford gets toppled by Team King’s Emily Hester as Team Flanagan teammate Liza Demain of Wolfboro (11) looks on during Sunday’s Fifth Annual NH Girls High School Hockey Invitational at Tri-Town Arena in Hooksett. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Bishop Guertin’s Carly Green of Milford gets toppled by Team King’s Emily Hester as Team Flanagan teammate Liza Demain of Wolfboro (11) looks on during Sunday’s Fifth Annual NH Girls High School Hockey Invitational at Tri-Town Arena in Hooksett. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

FRESHMEN-SOPHOMORE GAME

Team Flanagan (named after Hudson Olympian Kalie Flanagan) downed Team King (named after Salem Olympian Katie King) 4-2. No locals scored, but competing for Team King were Katie Tarr of Lawrence Academy and Victoria Hausberger of Lovell Academy, both from Nashua, and Milford’s Carly Green (she’ll be a junior at BG) and Hudson’s Alexine Beaulieu (Loomis Chaffee).

Green, a potent scorer, took her lumps as she took a hard check against the boards – usually illegal – and was knocked down a few times.

“It was definitely a wakeup call getting into it,” said Green, who also played in the event a year ago. “But I like the aggressive game, I thought it was good for girls hockey. No bad blood there.

“I would say it was even faster than last year. I thought the freshmen were really fast, and there were a lot of prep school girls too.”

The teams don’t practice beforehand, and that made any offensive fluidity tough.

“It’s so tough,” Green said. “I thought we did pretty good for not knowing each other; we tired to get to know each other in the locker room. It’s tough when you don’t know how other people play.”

It was also Hausberger’s second year.

“The pace picked up a lot, you could tell all the girls improved during their season,” she said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Hausberger said after the first period the players got used to each other. “Everyone sort of got a feel for everything,” she said. “We sort of learned the same things on our club teams. We were talking about running plays on the bench and everything.”