If he’d scripted it, Peter Bedford couldn’t have come up with a significantly better story than the 5-0 start his Londonderry High ice hockey team tallied in Bedford’s return to his coaching post after a year away.
The Lancer icemen started their New Hampshire Division I campaign by winning their first three contests – against Hanover, Bishop Brady of Concord, and Manchester Memorial – and outscoring those opponents by a total tally of 11-4.
The locals played the latter two of those contests during the week of Dec. 19, and they beat both Brady and Memorial by matching 4-1 margins.
The besting of Bishop Brady took place in the Lancers’ home-opener at the Tri-Town Arena in Hooksett on Wednesday the 21st, and Londonderry grasped a 2-1 lead after two periods which they’d add to in the third stanza.
Two afternoons later back there on their home sheet the Lancers closed out the pre-Christmas segment of their schedule by racing out to a 2-0 lead over Memorial. And when the second stanza was over the Londonderry lead sat at 3-0.
The victorious hosts received a goal and an assist from Patrick Murphy, and Bryan Murphy, Mike McCormick, and Jared Tuccolo each scored once.
LHS goalie Cody Baldwin contributed 19 saves to the resounding Lancer success, and Memorial keeper Lauren Calnan kept her contingent in the fray the whole way by making a total of 29 stops.
In the first round of the 17th Annual Blue Devil Classic at the Salem Icenter on the night of Wednesday, Dec. 28 the Lancers turned a dominant first-period performance into a 6-2 thumping of the Timberlane Regional Owls of Plaistow.
Londonderry potted four goals in the first period and led 4-1 at the completion of that stanza, the second period was scoreless, and the Lancers added two more markers in the third period to Timberlane’s one. All in all, Londonderry’s fore-checking and defensive work held the Owls to a mere nine shots all game while the Lancers pelted 41 on Timberlane goalie Tim Bedard.
“Our fore-checking is strong, defensively we’re sound, but we still have some things to work on offensively,” said coach Bedford. “I’d expect us to have more goals on 41 shots, and we need to do a better job of finishing. We manufacture a lot of our goals.”
Billy Croteau potted the first two Londonderry goals – with Patrick McKinnon assisting on both – in the first eight minutes of the opening period.
Timberlane netted a marker on a break-away with 2:38 to go, but the Lancers answered with tallies from Patrick Murphy just 20 seconds later and Dom Federico a mere 40 seconds after that. Tuccolo assisted on the first of those, and he and Nick Pitarys assisted on the other.
The LHS skaters capped off their scoring with third-period tallies by Troy Muldoon (from Danny Bears and Merrill Neiman) and Patrick Murphy (from Pitarys and Ryan Watts).
The third day of tourney play – Thursday, Dec. 29 – was cancelled due to the snowstorm, so the Lancers closed out their involvement in the event by playing Windham on Friday, Dec. 30.
And the locals had good news come out of that contest as well, with Londonderry claiming a 4-3 victory in overtime thanks to the late goal-scoring heroics of Croteau. Bears and Muldoon had potted earlier tallies.
The Lancers returned to New Hampshire Division I play on Monday, Jan. 2, with what could be termed “a barometer game” against the tough Bedford High contingent at Saint Anselm College. the team was hoping to see just how well they’d be able to stack up against that opponent, but the answer didn’t wind up being a positive one for the locals in an overwhelming, 8-0 defeat.
As a result, Londonderry moved to 3-1 in the division while Bedford advanced to 2-0-1.
Lancer forward Patrick McKinnon battles a Manchester Memorial opponent for possession of the puck following a face-off. LHS bested that Queen City opponent in Hooksett. Photo by Chris Pantazis