The Londonderry High School Ice Hockey team capped off its incredible season with three straight wins in the Division I playoffs, for the school’s first-ever State Championship in Hockey.
The Lancers playoff victories were all very impressive. Londonderry beat Pinkerton Academy 7-0 in the Quarterfinals, outscored Exeter 6-1 in the semifinals, then had a come-from-behind rally in the final period of the championship game to beat Windham High School, 5-2, for the title.
The team’s final victory of the year came on Saturday night, March 9, at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, where LHS fought tooth and nail for the win, being narrowly out-shot on net, 31 to 30 by Windham, out of those 30, five were registered as goals, where as the Jaguars were only able to convert two.
Credit to senior goalie, James Kircaldie, for keeping the puck out of the Lancer net, he had an outstanding performance in his final game as a Lancer.
The championship game started very close, with each team getting 11 shots on goal in the first period, and both scored a goal for a 1-1 tie after one.
Brett McKinnon struck first, during the Lancers first power play, at 7:12.
Assists on the goal went to seniors Brandon Morin and Owen Carey.
Windham came right back, tying the game at one, with five minutes left in the period.
The second period was equally close, but the Jags edged out LHS with a goal late in the period on a breakaway with 1:30 left in the second.
Down by one in the final period, Londonderry would not be denied the win, tying the game at two, on another man-advantage power play.
Morin scored, making it 2-2, with the assist going to senior Mike Maloney.
Senior Owen Carey then quickly gave his team the 3-2 lead, out dueling Windham’s goaltender off assists by Morin and Maloney.
Yet another senior, Jayden Hamilton, got into the scoring at 10:20 left in the game. Making it 4-2 with an assist by Carey.
With the two-goal lead, all that was left was to hold off Windham’s last-ditch effort, pulling the goalie and putting six scorers on the ice.
The Lancers held tough in the final two-minutes, with Carey scoring an open-netter to seal the deal and start the celebration.
Leading up to the championship game, in the semifinals against Exeter on Wednesday, March 6, at the JFK Arena, the Lancers easily got past the Blue Hawks with a 6-1 outcome.
McKinnon had the initial goal, at 4:17 in the first, with assists going to Tyler Rushton and Carey.
LHS made it 2-0 at 7:39 in the first on a goal by Maloney, assisted by McKinnon.
Kircaldie made five saves in the first.
In the second period, Londonderry had a 4-1 scoring advantage over Exeter.
Two more goals were scored by McKinnon, for the hat trick, one unassisted and the other had an assist by Carey.
Freshman Gavin Karoul scored the Lancers fifth goal, assisted by Matt Boyon and Hamilton.
The final goal of the game went to Carey, at 8:49 in the second, assisted by junior Liam Knight.
Kircaldie added eight saves in the second period.