Season ends in semifinals for Hanover boys hockey
Published: 03-07-2024 1:56 PM
Modified: 03-07-2024 4:05 PM |
MANCHESTER — The fifth-seeded Hanover High boys hockey team lost, 5-1, to top-seeded Windham during an NHIAA Division I semifinal on Wednesday at J.F.K Arena.
“Windham showed why they are number one,” said Hanover coach Dick Dodds. “They took advantage of every mistake we made. We managed to hold a significant edge in shots, 37-23, but couldn’t convert in key situations. The defeat, although tough to swallow, doesn’t define our season.”
Windham (17-2-1) opened the scoring 10 minutes into the first period, converting on a power play set up by a tripping penalty in the offensive zone.
The Bears (15-8) failed to clear a puck along the left sideboards and Nathan Crowley passed across the zone to Andrew Martino, pinching down from the far point. Martino beat Hanover goaltender JoJo Drent inside the right post.
Three minutes later, the Jaguars doubled their lead on a shorthanded goal. Aiden Quaglietta beat a forechecker in his own end, sped past a backchecker up the left side and through the neutral zone and then zipped around a backskating defender one-on-one. He found the back of the net on a backhand shot inside the right post.
Hanover began the second period on a power play but surrendered another shorthanded goal and went down, 3-0, after 25 seconds.
Defenseman Henry Cotter drifted back to retrieve a puck shot into his end and mostly whiffed on an attempt to clear it behind his net. Crowley picked off the puck, circled in front of the cage and scored.
The game got away from the Bears for good two minutes later when Josh Martino’s perfunctory wrist shot from the right point sailed over Drent’s glove at the near post.
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Wyatt Seelig scored Hanover’s lone goal, skating in from the right point and around a defender before striking from the high slot with four minutes remaining.
Crowley scored into an empty net a minute later.
Windham won the teams’ regular-season meeting, 2-0, in Salem on Feb. 7. Hanover, which will graduate four seniors, last won a state title in 2018.