Still Pushing: Saber-Titans battle but fall 4-3 to MHBDS

Merrimack's Caleb May (23) gets the better of the collision with a sprawling North-Souhegan's Connor O'Neil during Saturday's inter-division battle at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)
NASHUA – Make no mistake, Nashua High School North-Souhegan coach Chris Zarlenga stands staunchly behind his team, despite the fact they’re 0-11.
“The message we just gave the kids was if you go down and look at our scores this year, it’s not the story of this team,” Zarlenga said after a 4-3 penalty-filled loss to Division II’s Merrimack-Hollis Brookline-Derryfield at Conway Arena. “The kids have never quit. They’ve even outplayed most of the teams they’ve played in some period or another throughout every game. It’s awesome to see that. No matter what they won’t quit – as you could see, scoring a goal with three seconds left. Regardless of what’s happening out there, they just play their game.”
But their game had to be skating uphill because they had spotted the WarHawks a 3-0 lead and it was 4-1 at one point. All three Saber-Titan goals were on the power play as the teams, both shorthanded due to injury/illness, combined for an outrageous 17 penalties.
Merrimack had a backup, Liam Gagne, in net as starter James Brew was sick and he responded with 17 saves. Also, the ‘Hawks had to play tight when it was 5-on-5 and did just that to improve to 7-3-1.
“We’ve been working really hard on our defense, breakouts and defending our own zone,” MHBDS coach Dan Belliveau said, citing defenseman Caleb May as a key component of that. “That’s what we’ve worked on the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the consistency still needs to be there. … We kind of let up a little bit.”
They scored two goals two minutes apart in the first, with Colin Hamlin (Zac Hallas, May assists) and Jackson Woods (unassisted) making it 2-zip. Alex May made it 3-0, assisted by Caleb May and Josh Kahn, and life was tough for the home team.
But the Saber-Titans got their first goal at 7:28 of the second, Connor Prunier with a wrap-around with assists by Nathan D’Silva and Chris Miller.
The WarHawks made it 4-1 just 49 seconds into the third, Will Farrell beating Saber-Titans goalie Tony Venzia (22 saves), assisted by Alex May.
Venzia recovered from a shaky first period to help, besides WarHawk penalties, keep the home team in the game.
“After the first period he was able to turn it around, which as a goalie, is an extremely hard thing to do,” Zarlenga said. “And the team too, to rally around him … Everyone picked each other up and just kept going.”
They got another power play goal in a 5-on-3 by Miller (although the officials gave Bodie Hoaglund credit), with assists to Connor O’Neil and Andrew Cullinane at 8:56, making it an interesting 4-2 game.
The final five minutes took an eternity as penalties completely disrupted the game’s flow. North-Souhegan’s Jared Gauthier scored with three seconds left, assisted by Jake Dodge.
Belliveau said the team is still working on trying to stay out of the box, knowing that shortcoming let the Saber-Titans back in it.
“It’s nice to come out of here with a ‘w’,” he said, “even though I think it should have been 4-1.”