Tom King

This has been hockey’s week.

New Hampshire High School hockey, especially locally, had the stage all to itself for the last 10 days with the boys and girls tournaments.

That was because of the experimental condensed Division I and II and to some extent III basketball schedule that ended the seasons before Presidents Day in February. Just didn’t seem normal, and it probably won’t be that way next year.

Wrestling ended with the New Englands last weekend, but its two big events, the Division Meets and Meet of Champions were done. Bowling, skiing, gymnastics, swimming were all wrapped up.

With the exception of the Division IV hoop tourney, hockey was it. Those finals were scheduled to wrap up Friday night at Keene State.

Saturday’s hockey title quadruple header at Manchester’s SNHU Arena – the first one in three years – was slated to have the spotlight all to itself. Too bad there were no local teams set to be involved. Last year there were umpteen title games on the same day with basketball and hockey, but of course those were under different circumstances with the pandemic and the venues involved.

Did the sport take advantage of it? It depends. The atmosphere was great for the Bishop Guertin boys prelim win over Pinkerton 10 days ago at Skate 3, and there was a good crowd for the Cardinals girls hockey quarterfinal win at Hudson’s Cyclones Arena last Friday.

Last Saturday’s BG-Bedford boys Division I quarterfinal had a great crowd – that Saint A’s Sullivan Arena atmosphere is always good – and then at Conway Arena in Nashua Hollis Brookline-Derryfield had a good crowd for a great game that went to overtime. And there was student support on a lousy travel night Wednesday at Plymouth State, but alas, the Warriors fell to Belmont-Gilford to end their season.

It was a little disappointing up at Concord’s Everett Arena on Tuesday night for the girls semis . Plenty of adults, but on a school night with a venue 40 minutes out of town for both BG and Hanover, not many if any students.

“It was the last sport going of the winter sports,” Cards girls coach Phil DeVita said before Guertin fell in the semis to Hanover. “The girls were excited, they earned the spot, they earned it last year and it last year and it’s tough to get this far. I know with all the sports being over, that they’re excited when they’re in school, people are talking, their teachers, and there’s a little buzz there and I think that’s great for the team, great for everybody, the attention their getting is well deserved.”

Football gets this spotlight every fall, as all the other sports are done by the time the football semis and title games come around.

This week, with hockey, it was game on, and the only game in town to boot. Hope you got to see it.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.