NASHUA, NH – In a winter during which to some extent it seems like it could be their season, Wednesday just wasn’t their night.
That was the plight for the Nashua High School-Souhegan Saber-Titans, who dropped a tough 6-3 decision at the hands of the Manchester Kings, and may have lost one of their best players in addition.
It just added up to a forgetful, penalty filled evening at Conway Arena as both teams combined for a whopping 18 trips to the box. It was bad for N-S right from the start, as Manchester – a co-op of Central, West and Memorial – scored 13 seconds in, led 2-0, and even after North-Souhegan tied it in the second period, got the go-ahead goal just over a minute later.
“We played that team a week, week-and-a-half ago, you beat them 4-1 and you come out flat, that’s what happens, right?” Saber-Titans coach Chris Zarlenga said. “They come in with a chip on their shoulder, they were ready to skate, and we weren’t tonight.”
And they have to wonder if arguably their best scorer, Jacob Landry, will be able to skate in their next game and a couple beyond. Landry got a five-minute major for a hit to the head – it was during a stoppage of play midway through the third period. The junior, who left the game late in the first period with a shoulder injury after taking a hard hit but returned to start the second, was also given a game misconduct/disqualification, which could lead to at least a two-game suspension.
“We still don’t know,” Zarlenga said. “As you could tell, I disagreed with a lot of things that happened tonight. We’ll see what happens.”
And if it’s worst case scenario, either by injury or suspension? “Next man up,” Zarlenga said.
Next team up is Salem on the road on Saturday, and every game is big from here on out for the Saber-Titans, who want to put more wins together to get a tourney berth. If the season were to end today, the 4-5 locals would not qualify, one spot by just four-tenths of a rating point out of what will be an 11-team party in a month.
“We talk about eight place being the fence post,” Zarlenga said, “and which side of the fence post do want to be on? We want to go up.”
That’s the attitude the 5-6 Kings had, according to head coach Jeremy Baker, as the loss to the Saber-Titans back on Jan. 17 started a four-game slide that they just snapped.
“The kids had a little bit of a jump tonight,” Manchester coach Jeremy Baker said. “We’ve been having some problems at times with them coming out a little bit flat, that’s what happened the last time we played them, and by the time they realized it and tried to push the pedal down they couldn’t do it.
“Tonight we played more like the team that I know, which I was happy for it. … This was a must-win game, that’s the way I looked at it.”
It started with a goal by Joey Velez, who ended up with a hat trick, just 13 seconds in. Lukas Tafe made it 2-0 nearly six minutes later and the Saber-Titans looked in trouble.
However, Landry scored at 11:58 of the first, assisted by Chase McBride and Cody Lund to cut the lead in half. The locals tied it at 2 on a power play goal by Callen Cullity, assisted by Kyle D’Silva and Chris Miller just 1:48 in the second period, and with their top line firepower, it looked like it was only a matter of time before the Saber-Titans would take control.
Nope.
In just 1:30, the Kings grabbed the lead for good on an unassisted Velez goal as he walked right in on North-Souhegan goalie Zach Veilleux (21 stops). Velez, who also had an assist for a four-point night, scored again eight minutes later to make it a 4-2 game.
“All year I’ve been preaching put pucks on net, crash the net,” Baker said. “For some reason,we’d been hesitant to do it. … I tell them, if you want to score goals, you’ve got to stick your nose in there. I was happy with them tonight.”
“Again, just gave up our zone too quickly, a couple of breakdowns,” Zarlenga said. “For all of the good plays we had, a lot of dark ones, too. … We gave up our zone all too often.”
The penalties began to mount and the Kings got two rebound goals, one on the power play, by Owen Flynn and Tafe’s second goal, and the game was out of reach. McBride, assisted by Lund, forced one past Manchester goalie Cam Velez (27 saves)
This wasn’t what Zarlenga expected, as the team was looking to change course from a tough 4-3 loss at Bow last weekend.
“We all just talked about it,” Zarlenga said. “Our worst game of the year, but it won’t be repeated, and I think everyone in the locker room believes that.”