Nashua North-Souhegan (18) tries to hold up Alvirne-Milford's Bryce Larco in a race to the puck during Saturday night's inter-divisional game at Skate 3 Arena in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSGOROUGH, Mass. – They are two hockey teams in completely different worlds, let alone divisions.

While Division II’s Alvirne-Milford is thriving this season, Divsion I’s Nashua North-Souhegan’s is struggling mightily, as Saturday night’ 5-2 Admirals win at Skate 3 Arena showed.

The records tell the story, as the Admirals improved to 6-3 while North-Souhegan remains winless at 0-9 heading into this Wednesday’s Battle of the Bridge vs. South-Pelham. It’s been a lost weekend for the young Saber-Titans, who lost at Exeter 8-0 in a rare Friday night game, and then saw the Admirals, down 1-0 after one period, explode for five unanswered second period goals.

“If you find my hockey team, let me know,” a clearly annoyed N-S coach Chris Zarlenga said. “And when you do, tell them they have practice on Monday.

“Back-to-back is hard. Hour and a half drive for a late game, when you’ve got 11 skaters, that’s hard. It’s hard for 11 skaters. And they work.

As mad as I was tonight, and the coaching staff was mad, they still worked to the end, and you can’t fault them.”

But the bottom line was the Admirals broke this one open.

“I think we started rough in the first period, but we picked it up in the second, got four goals in, but had a real good vibe going,” said Admirals acting head coach Melanie Riendeau, who was filling the shoes of head man Jason Dango, out for family/personal reasons. Dango, school officials said, is expected back for Wednesday’s local showdown with fellow Division II contender Merrimack-Hollis Brookline-Derryfield.

Brandon Ganas had two goals, his first starting the rally just 1:06 into the period, assisted by Bryce Larco and Brandan Callahan. Larco had three assists on the night, Callahan two, but he got the go-ahead goal from Larco four minutes later. Also scoring in the period were Dylan MacLeod (Braydon Atwood assist) and Chris Bozza (Landon Briand assist). North-Souhegan goalie Tony Venzia was under siege.

For the Saber-Titans, Chris Miller got the game’s only first-period goal, assisted by Callen Cullity and Conor Prunier, just 2:07 in. But N-S couldn’t get another one past Admirals netminder Mason Kamarek until Conor Prunier’s 5 on 3 power play goal with 2:34 left.

The Admirals made it to the semis last years, and perhaps weren’t expected to be quite as good. But that’s certainly not the case so far. Riendeau, who played at Goffstown five years ago, recalled when the Admirals were usually looked at as a win on the schedule. Not now.

“They’ve changed a lot,” she said. “I think that’s due to coaching, and not only player skills but also their attitude toward the game.”

It got penalty-filled and chippy in the final few minutes. Thus, the two teams did not shake hands after, as Alvirne principal Steve Beals, helping out in Dango’s absence, had the Admirals leave the ice at Riendeau’s request.

“We decided to just do coaches handshakes, we didn’t want it to get worse, keep it classy and end it there,” she said. “It was a good win.”

A victory for an Alvirne-Milford team that is skating in a completely different world right now than North-Souhegan.