Players from Merrimack-Hollis Brookline-Derryfield and Nashua South-Pelham mingle after the final game last weekend of the Backyard Brawl Holiday Tourney at Conway Arena. They got this week off without games before the regular season resumes this weekend. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The players from the Merrimack-Hollis Brookline-Derryfield tri-op and Nashua South-Pelham gathered on the ice after the recent conclusion of another successful Backyard Brawl Holiday Tourney at Conway Arena.

They all know each other as the hockey community is one tight group. The teams have played each other twice already, once in a regular season game and then more time in the finale of the Brawl. Now they’ll go their separate ways, MHBDS looking to be a major contender in Division II, and the Kings hoping to parlay their brawl title into a successful Division I tourney berth, which would be the first in several years and in the coaching reign of Jordan Sarracco. Last year the Kings had won the tourney and were hoping to do the same thing but never came close. They have players like Brendan Doughty and others to take them into the bulk of the season.

“A lot of positive takeaways here,” Sarracco said. “We saw a lot of people step up to the plate that weren’t normally guys who were starting on lines, really stepped up and filled it in. There’s just a lot of positives and takeways that we’re looking forward to (the rest of) the regular season.”

The Kings had some injuries during the tourney and one might wonder if depth s a question. “As long as we can stay healthy, we have the depth,” Sarracco said. “This year is the first in five years that I can confidently say we’ve got enough guys to run three lines, something we haven’t been able to do consistently. We do have that this year as long as we can stay healthy.”

The Kings have an immediate test in Hanover at Conway Arena later today.

They have players like Broden Landsteiner, Brendan Doughty (hat trick the other night), and goalie Noah Soule to try to keep them in games.

North-Souhegan failed to win a game in the tourney, played MHBDS to a 3-3 game but then fell flat 4-0 at the hands of the Kings. They lost its tourney finale to Alvirne-Milford, 9-5, and head coach Chris Zarlenga’s squad was slated to be at Bow on Saturday to begin the grind.

“We’re a team that doesn’t have their identity figured out,” Zarlenga said. “A team that’s rushing, not enough communication.”

Bishop Guertin will actually for the first time in a while play one of the Nashua co-ops, these same Saber-Titans, later this month (Jan. 15 at Conway). The Cards lost two of three at the Prout School Tourney in Providence, R.I., and are 1-2 in the Divission I regular season going into Saturday’s game at Pinkerton. BG is still feeling its way; the goal scoring will be spread and coach Gary Bishop is going to rely on his veterans, led by James Mantone, to get BG through the growing pains of the early part of a season.

“We’ve got eight seniors, that helps,” he said. “When we move our feet we’ll be OK; we just have to get consistent goaltending with Luke Bettencourt and Conor Hayes vying for steady work.

“We’re trying to determine right now who are the top three lines,” Bishop saod. “We’re playing a lot of people that later in the year will be playing on a fourth line. That’s what we use the (holiday) tournament for.”

In Division II, MHBDS has plenty of depth; the bench is huge and the WarHawks (combo of the old HBDS Warriors and Merrimack’s Tomahawks) can run three lines easily. Their goal in their second tourney game was to score more than three goals as that was the number they had in all four of their previous games. They resume play Saturday at home (West Side Arena) vs. Bishop Brady-Merrimack Valley with a 2-1 mark in Division II.

“They showed that if they play our style, and the sytsems we’re running every week in and out, we’re going to be all right,” Merrimack coach Dan Belliveau said.

And that depth? “I think it’s going to help us, yeah,” Belliveau said, with Alex Gertz, Will Farrell, and Jackson Woods being keys throughout the tourney.

The A-M Admirals, meanwhile, split their first two games of the regular season and were set to set sail Saturday to face Oyster River. The Admirals have plenty of scoring with Brandon Callahan and Braydon Atwood among others. Callahan had four goals in the Brawl finale.

Division II’s strength always seems to be on the seaacost (Dover, Spaulding, Oyste r River, etc.) but there will be plenty of challenges from the two locals that combined have five schools supplying players. The fun resumes this weekend and it goes all the way into March.

BISHOP GIRLS OPEN TODAY

it’s been a while since we’ve seen the BG girls hockey team on the Skate 3 ice – early last March when they won in the quarters over Exeter before bowing to Hanover in the semis. They make their return today at 5:10 p.m. with their long-awaited regular season opener vs. Concord.

The Cards lost a couple of key seniors to graduation, and some freshmen from last year did not return, but, as head coach Phil DeVita said, “we still have a good core group with 13 girls returning and four new players.”

Seniors Katherine Oskirko, Riley Goldthwaite, Ciara Fallon plus junior Carly Greene are big on offense, while seniors Aine Kelley Giada Kennedy and Natalie Gaffey should, along with others, help anchor the defense in front of goalies Scar Casey and Emily Powers.

“We hope to have another great year again with our seven seniors leading the way,” DeVita said, “with a total team effort needed each game.”

Souhegan, meanwhile, is already three games into its season, but is 0-3, having been outscored by a combined 28-2. The Sabers host Bedford today at Conway Arena.