Alvirne-Milford's Brandon Callahan appears to score past Nashua Knights goalie Tony Venezia during Saturday's inter-divisional clash at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. Nashua coaches disputed the goal, but it stood in the Admirals' 5-2 win. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – Two if by land, but five if by sea.

That’s the way things are going these days for the Alvirne-Milford Admirals, winners of seven straight, including Saturday’s 5-2 win over the

Nashua North-South Knights at Skate 3 Arena.

There were two key reasons for the outcome: One, about a four-minute Admiral onslaught, plus 36 saves in goal by A-M goaltender Kian Corcoran, who is having a fantastic season.

“I credit it a lot to our coaching and our defense,” Corcoran said. “They’re really making it easy for me.”

The Admirals gave their first-year coach, Kathy Griswold, a great birthday present.

The Admirals finished January with a clean sheet, 7-0, and have to be considered a prime title contender in Division II.

Corcoran is a prime reason why, as he gives his offense the confidence to push forward.

“You play different when you trust your goalie, and we trust him implicitly,” Griswold said. “We’ve also been really working hard at being consistent and stepping up, not dumping everything on the goaltender. I’m really proud of this team, the way they’re working together, playing for each other.”

Brandon Callahan’s unassisted breakaway goal – disputed by Nashua – gave the Division II Admirals a 1-0 lead at 9:39 of the opening period. Nashua’s Brendon Doughty tied it 55 seconds into the second, assisted by Gavin Asimakopulos.

“Every once in a while, this team needs a cold cup of water in the face,” Griswold said. “Nashua evening it out was the cold cup of water. We learned that when we face adversity, we double down.”

It looked like the Knights, now 2-9, would be in position to take the lead on the power play at 8:50 of the same period, but Asimakopulos got called for a cross check, and bang, bang, bang, the Admirals kept firing.

In the ensuing 4-on-4 forward Brandon Ganas got the first of his two goals with a rocket from the right side that somehow found the back of the goal despite the efforts of Knights goalie Tony Venezia (19 saves) to cut off the angle.Then, with the man advantage,Chris Bozza had a back-door goal, assisted by Dylan MacLeod, for a 3-1 lead. Ganas added an even strength score, assisted by Luke Green, with a minute to go in the period and the deluge was complete for a 4-1 lead.

“Today we get in the box and again, we just take seven minutes of hockey off,” Nashua co-coach Chris Zarlenga said. “That’s it. Besides that, you look at the shots on goa (38-24) and the overall puck possession, I think we dominated. But it’s really hard to hockey games when you take seven minutes completely off. Theres a difference between going from ‘A’ hockey to ‘F’ hockey than it is going from A to B.

“We talk about making minor mistakes vs. major ones, and we’re doing a bad job of limiting the major mistakes. You can come back from minors, but not that.”

Nashua’s Brendan Skelly skates into a fallen Alvirne-Milford’s Luke Green while Thomas Dratch (13) skates with the puck during Saturday’s interdivisional game at Skate 3. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Zarlenga felt the Knights would have had a better outcome if they could have broken through in the third, but he knows why they didn’t: Corcoran.

“That goalie, he’s a great goalie,” he said. “He’s big, he’s mobile, he sees the puck really well, and their ‘D’ do a good job in front.”

The teams traded third period goals, Callahan’s second, assisted by MacLeod and Bozza, and Doughty again for Nashua in the final minute, assisted by David Ramahlo and Callen Cullity.

The two teams will see each other again at Conway Arena in the last game of the regular season on Feb. 28. Can the Admirals have another unbeaten month? They have to visit fellow title contender St. Thomas on Wednesday.

“We just have so much chemistry,” Ganas said. “We work so hard week in, week out, we learn how to bury the pucks.”

And, thus far, the opposition.