Nashua South-Pelham's Hunter Demers gets knocked down in front of Bedford goalie Savo Ftorek during Wednesday night's game at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The frustration continues for the Nashua High School South-Pelham hockey team,

But it wasn’t supposed to. Wednesday night’s contest against a Bedford team having a surprisingly tough season should have been the launch to a run to try to make the Division I postseason.

But the now 3-9 Bulldogs had other ideas, as the Kings managed just seven shots over the first two periods en route to a 5-1 loss at Conway Arena.

“It’s hard to win a hockey game when you can’t get enough shots on net,” Kings coach Jordan Sarracco said. “Bedford did a very good job of blocking shots tonight. Regardless, we did not get enough rubber to the net.”

The Kings, now 2-9-1, haven’t won in the month of February, the last time being their victory over rival North-Souhegan on Jan. 29. They suffered two OT losses and in their tie had the lead in the final minute of regulation.

And last night, the timing wasn’t good for South-Pelham. Bedford got a key player back from injury, forward Dylan Riccio, and while he didn’t figure in any of the ‘Dogs’ scoring, he made a difference. He had been out most of the season with a fractured kneecap.

“That really just opens up so much and we can roll three lines,” Bedford coach Jon Garrity said. “We’d been struggling trying to roll two, and you just can’t do that.”

The ‘Dogs led 2-0 after one with goals by Jake Lacroix and Conor Bythrow. Parker O’Toole got the first of his two goals as Bedford took a 3-0 lead into the final period. O’Toole wristed one past Kings starting netminder Ethan Robinson from right wing for a 4-0 lead at 3;51 of the third, and less than three minutes later Tucker Roberto finished his team’s scoring. Robinson and Noah Soule had a combined 29 saves.

South-Pelham’s Brendon Doughty scored on a 5-on-3 at 9:43 of the third, assisted by Andrew Byrne. Bedford netminder Savo Ftorek had 16 stops. The Kings had a respectable 10 shots in the third period, but it was falling behind in the first that set the wrong tone.

“We definitely wait and let the other team set the pace,” Sarracco said. “When we win hockey games, have good hockey games, we’re the team that sets the pace. We absolutely did not do that tonight.”

Garrity says “There’s a path” for his team to get into the 10-team Division I tourney, but for both the Bulldogs and the Kings, it comes down to winning the majority of their six games remaining.

“It’ll be an uphill battle, there’s a lot of teams fighting for those spots,” said Sarracco, whose team is at Division II’s Somersworth/Coe-Brown on Saturday. “I think we’re still there as long as we can find our game again and put it back in play.”