The Concord High boys’ hockey team is facing perhaps its toughest stretch of games with less than two weeks left in the regular season. Four games – two home and two on the road – against four of the top seven teams in Division I.
This week, Concord (13-1) travels to play Pinkerton (10-3-1) on Wednesday and hosts Salem (9-3-2) at Everett Arena on Friday. The Tide then visits Hanover (9-5) next week before finishing the season off at home against Bishop Guertin (9-5).
Concord has already notched wins this season against Pinkerton, Hanover and Bishop Guertin, while outscoring those programs, 12-5. Friday’s game in Concord will be the first meeting between the Tide and Salem this season. The Blue Devils are 2-1-1 against Pinkerton, Hanover and BG this year.
“We have some tough games coming up, but it’s a good lead into the tournament,” Concord Coach Dunc Walsh said.
Barring a collapse in these final four games, Concord is likely to be a top-three seed in the playoffs with its first game at home before the tournament moves to neutral ice for the semifinal and title games.
Before the season began, Walsh’s squad seemed well-equipped to return to the playoffs after an early exit in the quarterfinals at the hands of Exeter last year. The defensive corps remained mostly intact with First Team All-State selection Matt Chorlian returning to anchor the blue line along with fellow seniors Dan LeBell and Liam O’Brien. Senior Cormick McGonigle has most often rotated in as the fourth defenseman.
The bigger roster holes left by graduation were at forward and goaltender.
Senior captain Alex Marceau saw both of his first-line partners graduate last spring, but it didn’t take long for Marceau to get acquainted skating with Drew Livingston and Colin Kastle this season.
Marceau leads the Tide with 31 points on 12 goals and 19 assists, including three four-point games. The first two came against Pinkerton and Bishop Guertin in January. Livingston is tied with Marceau for the team lead in goals with 12, and Kastle is fifth in scoring with 15 points.
“One of my focuses this year was building chemistry with Drew and Colin,” Marceau said. “Although we’ve been teammates for three years, we never played together.”
Andrew Cole, a top-six forward, is second on the team in scoring with 19 points on eight goals and 11 assists (four against Exeter on Saturday). Cole also owns two of the team’s three shorthanded goals.
In all, Walsh has eight players on his roster in double-digit point figures. The Tide has blasted opponents in goal scoring this year while staying disciplined in the defensive end. Concord has outscored its opponents 73-18, second only to Bedford at 80-10.
Despite such figures, Marceau doesn’t think the Tide’s offense is getting the credit it deserves.
“Our offense is underlooked,” he said. “At the beginning of the season, the focal point for other teams was that we had a good defense but may lack offensively and at goaltender. Now, I think we’ve proven that to be wrong.”
Concord has revealed itself to be a rather balanced team up and down the ice, as well as on special teams. The power play has been especially effective as of late. The Tide scored two power-play goals against Exeter, both within 30 seconds after the penalty.
The power play “has always been a strong suit for us, even more so this year,” said Chorlian, who is often involved in the offense from the point and is fourth on the team in scoring with 17 points (five goals, 12 assists).
“It’s nice we have a bunch of great shooters,” he said, pointing specifically to Marceau, Livingston and O’Brien (six goals, seven assists). “As long as I can get the puck to one of them … if we’re out there, we’re probably going to score.”
Goalie duties have been split evenly between juniors Spencer Burgess and Griffin Gilbert with each trading starts game to game, and the pair has done a fair job filling the empty crease left by Ben Nelson, another First Team All-State player, last year.
With the help of an experienced group of defensemen in front of them, neither Spencer nor Burgess have allowed more than three goals in a game this season. They’ve also combined for five shutout wins. The next four games, where both goalies are expected to get two starts, could determine who will be between the pipes come playoff time.
“Griffin and Spencer have really proven themselves and played well this season,” Chorlian said. “We’ve played some good teams and the most goals we’ve let in are three. Defensively, I think we’ve gotten stronger and improved since last year. And offensively, I don’t think we’ve taken a step back either. We’re slightly better this year, and our record shows that.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3339, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)