MANCHESTER – They didn’t fold after giving up three first-period goals. They erased a one-goal deficit in the third period. And the Bow High boys’ hockey team looked on the verge of completing the comeback and claiming the Division II title, but Windham had other ideas.
After coughing up a three-goal lead, the No. 6 Jaguars (14-6-1) scored on a power play with 4:17 left in the third to claim a 4-3 victory over No. 1 Bow (17-3-1) and the D-II crown Saturday afternoon at Verizon Wireless Arena.
“To dig ourselves a 3-0 hole in the first period, that was bad, but to come back in the second and third periods and dig our way out if it, I’m proud of these kids for doing it,” Bow Coach Tim Walsh said. “They easily could have rolled over down 3-0, but they fought back … For it to end the way it ended, I feel really bad for my kids for all the work they put in that nobody sees. For it to end like that, it’s not acceptable to me.”
The penalty call that gave Windham the power play was borderline (a pair of players got tangled behind the Jaguars net and the call went against Bow), but Walsh was referring to the action leading up to the ensuing goal.
Windham Coach Jerry Manchester called a timeout immediately after the penalty call on Bow. Play resumed with a faceoff in the Bow zone that Windham’s Chad Desautels (two goals, two assists) won. He drew it back to Jack Crowley, who slid a pass to the other side of the ice and a wide-open Bryce Blanchard, who one-timed it into an open net despite a sprawling effort from Bow goalie Nate Carrier (14 saves).
Walsh felt that one of his defenders was impeded from getting to Crowley and stopping the pass to Blanchard. But the whistle never blew and Manchester’s timeout had paid off with a goal.
“We had tired kids and we had the power play coming up, so I just wanted to give them a blow and just talk about what we were going to do on our faceoffs, what we’re going to do when we don’t have the puck,” Manchester said. “Just try to get them to calm down a little bit and let them know they had plenty of time on the clock.”
Interestingly enough, that was the exact same message Walsh gave to his team when he called a timeout in the first period.
The Falcons started the game strong and had the Jaguars pinned in their own end for the first two minutes. But Windham sprang free with a counterattack, 2-on-1 breakaway goal from Desautels at 4:21 of the first. The Jaguars then made it 2-0 at 5:44 when Nolan Cunningham snuck a wrister past Carrier’s stick side off a faceoff. That’s when Walsh called his timeout.
“Just settled them down and told them we’ve got a long way to go, there was still 10 minutes left in the first period and it’s not a big deal,” Walsh said. “They obviously scored again, but we had little things build back up for the rest of the first period, so other than that third goal, I thought we played better. It was a spurt of about three minutes that we were just nowhere to be found.”
The Jaguars got that third goal at 6:30 of the first, less than a minute after the second. Again it came on a counterattack and again it was Desautels finishing the play, this time after some nice puck movement from Domenec Bruzzese and Blanchard (goal, assist).
The Falcons finally got on the board at 5:27 of the second. Junior Doug Champagne, the leading scorer in D-II, picked up a turnover in the right corner, glided to the front of the net and beat Windham goalie Max Daly (15 saves) low to make it 3-1.
Bow cut deeper into Windham’s lead at 7:31 of the second. This time it was Alex Killion taking a pass from Brendan Ulrich in the neutral zone, using a burst over the blue line to create some separation and then putting a wobbly shot on net that went through Daly.
Killion nearly tied it with a backhand less than a minute later and the Jaguars had some near misses late in the period, but it stayed 3-2 going into the third, and that felt pretty good to the Falcons.
“The kids weren’t partying or anything like that, but we were confident,” Walsh said of the scene in his locker room during the second intermission. “We had played well to come back to 3-2 going into the third period. We had the confidence to come back and tie it up, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The tying goal came from an unlikely source – the third line and sophomore Dominique Biron. The line of Biron, Brandon Tibbetts and Jeff Bell doesn’t get a regular shift, but played well early in the third, so Walsh sent the trio out for more ice time. The coach was rewarded when Tibbetts sent a pass from behind the net to Biron on the doorstep, and the sophomore girl playing on the boys’ team buried the chance to make it 3-3 at 6:59 of the third.
That score made for a thrilling finish, but the Falcons weren’t playing for thrilling. They were playing for a title.
“It was a good season, the kids played well, but our goal this year was to win the state championship,” Walsh said. “We didn’t set any other goal, no other small goals, it was just one goal, win the state championship, and to not win it is unfortunate.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)