Any team that is dealt an overwhelming defeat early in its season will have
reasons to take a step back, reassess, and make adjustments, for the next
time out.
And that’s what the Londonderry High School hockey team did after getting
pummeled Monday night, Jan. 2 in tallying victories over Manchester
opponents from Central High and Trinity later in the week.
The now 5-1 Lancers rebounded extremely well from their humbling 8-0 loss to
Bedford on the second day of the new year with a 4-0 blanking of the host
Manchester Central Little Green at the JFK Coliseum in the Queen City on
Wednesday the fourth.
Londonderry put forth a dominant performance throughout the contest,
enjoying a 43-13 total advantage in shots on net and leading from the middle
of the first period onward. Sophomore forward Patrick Murphy had three of
the four LHS goals.
Speaking of alterations his team made during its one practice session
between the Bedford and Central games, Lancer coach Peter Bedford stated,
“We made changes. We changed our fore-checking scheme, our defensive scheme,
and we even changed our lines. And the kids showed today that they were
comfortable with the changes.”
Londonderry controlled play from the opening face-off, enjoying a 5-1
advantage where shots on net were concerned in the opening five minutes and
snagging a 1-0 lead with 7:41 left in the opening period when Murphy was set
up for his first goal by Dom Federico. The goal-scorer zipped a wrist shot
from the top of the right face-off circle in the Central zone past Green
goalie Keenan Alnahas, who would keep his crew in the game nearly
single-handedly by making some 39 saves before the game’s final buzzer
blared.
The locals finished with an 18-3 advantage in shots on net but just got that
one blast past Alnahas in the first 15 minutes of action.
Londonderry drove 15 more shots on the Central net during the middle stanza
and got three of them past Alnahas in snagging a commanding 4-0 advantage.
Murphy was set up for the first of them by Anthony Federico five minutes
into the second, and he bagged his hat-trick a little less than five minutes
later when he tallied a power-play goal with Dom Federico and Merrill Neiman
garnering the assists.
Londonderry ended the game¹s scoring with 3:16 left when Troy Muldoon was
set up by Patrick McKinnon, going up by the apparently insurmountable margin
of four goals.
Cody Baldwin turned aside all 13 Central shots in contributing to the
shutout.
Speaking of hat-trick-bagger Murphy, Bedford said, “He’s definitely one of
our more skilled players. He’s a sophomore, and I think he’s starting to
figure it out.”
And the Lancers continued to show they’d figured out with a 3-1 besting of
the Trinity Pioneers’ crew for whom Bedford served as an assistant last
winter.
Bryan Murphy was set up by McKinnon for the lone goal of the first stanza,
and Neiman made it a 2-0 game after being set up by Jacob Parilla and
Patrick Murphy on the only goal of the middle period.
Trinity cut its deficit in half early in the third stanza before the Lancers
ended the scoring on a power-play tally by Dom Federico with 9:23 to go.
Troy Muldoon had the helper.
“Trinity is a better team than their record shows, and they probably played
their best game of the season. But we did a good job of limiting their
chances,” said Bedford.
LHS freshman goalie Cam Donovan made 18 saves his contribution to the Lancer
success.
The locals return to action on Friday afternoon with a home game against
Pinkerton Academy.
Londonderry High hockey player Anthony Federico battles a Central rival
along the boards during the recent LHS win. Photo by Chris Pantazis