The Concord High boys’ hockey team is able to enjoy certain luxuries after stringing together 14 straight wins going back to December.
Forgiveness for a loss is one of them.
The Tide never felt the pressure of chasing a perfect season since their opening loss to Bedford. Fourteen wins later, Concord doesn’t have to worry about falling out of playoff contention, either.
That’s why Tide Coach Dunc Walsh didn’t have smoke coming from his ears after his team outshot Salem, 57-9, only to lose, 4-3, at Everett Arena on Friday in Division I action.
“We dominated the game, but just didn’t score on them,” Walsh said. “(Salem) was opportunistic.”
He added, “It’s not the worst thing. It gives us a little motivation.”
Junior forward Drew Livingston, the owner of two Concord goals, tried to stay optimistic after the game as well.
“Better now than the quarterfinals like last year,” he said, alluding to Concord’s 1-0 loss to Exeter in the Tide’s first playoff game last season. “It’s good to get it out of our system now.”
Concord (14-2) enters its final week of the regular season with games at Hanover on Wednesday and at home against Bishop Guertin next Saturday. After beating Pinkerton earlier this week, the Tide are in the midst of a hard four-game stretch facing some of the division’s best teams behind Concord and first-place Bedford.
The Tide can expect Hanover and BG to bring the same intensity Salem (11-3-2) carried onto the ice at Everett Arena.
“Being one of the top teams in the league, everyone plays their hardest against us,” Livingston said.
It only took one shot in the third period for the Blue Devils to secure a seventh consecutive win. After a scoreless second period for Concord, Livingston scored 15 seconds into the third to cut the Tide’s deficit to one goal. But Mitchell McGinn gave Salem a 4-2 lead with 12:23 left in game on a rebound chance for his third goal of the night.
“It felt good to get that in the first shift, get it out of the way and be one away from tying it up,” Livingston said. “But it didn’t fall that way.”
Alex Marceau brought Concord back within one on a short-handed goal about four minutes later. Ethan Donlon won a faceoff in the offensive end and drew the puck to Marceau in the slot. Marceau fired the shot over the shoulder of Salem netminder Paddy Capsalis, bringing the score to 4-3 with 8:12 remaining.
The Tide seemed poised to bring the game back to even when Salem’s Sebastian Farah went to the penalty box for hooking with 4:18 left. Concord’s power play moved the puck well and maintained possession for all two minutes, but the Salem penalty killing group frustrated the Tide with blocked shots. Capsalis didn’t have much trouble handling everything else that got through.
“I thought for sure we were going to tie it,” Walsh said. “We had a million chances, but it was one of those games. … I thought we moved it around pretty well, but we probably had to get more traffic in front. He saw a lot of pucks.”
Concord goalies Griffin Gilbert and Spencer Burgess have played well all season while splitting game duties evenly, but Friday is a night both will try to forget. Gilbert started the game but was replaced by Burgess after allowing Salem its second goal in the first period.
Burgess didn’t have a much easier night as he also allowed two to get by, the first being an own-goal by one of his teammates. It was the first time all season Concord has allowed an opponent to score more than three times.
It was a different kind of game at the other end of the ice.
Concord peppered Capsalis with 17 shots in the first period. Livingston hit the net with one of those on a power play to tie the game, 1-1, 4:48 into the first. But his goal was caught between two by McGinn that gave Salem a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period.
The Tide turned the dial up in the second and fired 20 shots at Capsalis, but all were turned away. They hit Capsalis with another 20 in the third and managed the two goals from Livingston and Marceau.
“Most of the time if he sees it, he can stop it,” Salem Coach Mark McGinn said.
After taking a 1-0 lead three and a half minutes into the game, the Salem bench didn’t quiet down as it chased an upset win on the road.
“It’s easy to get up for (Concord) because they’re in first (or) second place every year,” McGinn said. “It probably meant a little more to us being in the standings. … They’re a great team and that’s a great win for us.”
The Tide will try to get back in the win column next week as it searches for new momentum to carry into the playoffs.
“It’s something for us to work on,” Walsh said. “It gives us something to be mad about on Monday.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3339, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)