CONCORD – The Bow High boys’ hockey team started its season 1-6-0, but head coach Tim Walsh knew the Falcons were capable of better.
Since then, his team has rattled off wins in seven of its last nine games – including an 11-1 thrashing of Nashua South-Pelham (3-11-0) on Wednesday night at Everett Arena – to climb back to 8-8-0 with two games remaining in the regular season.
The Falcons scored four goals in the first period, four in the second and three more in the third.
Eight different players cracked the scoresheet for Bow, with senior forward Ethan Tobeler leading the way with a hat trick. Billy Smethurst, Julian Lerch, Owen Webber, Landon Westcott, Aiden Labrecque, Will Raisty, Patrick Jurcins and Dom Jurcins were the other goal scorers for the Falcons. Sean McCarthy scored the lone goal for the Panthers.
The biggest difference between Wednesday’s performance and Bow’s play earlier in the season comes down to confidence, Walsh explained.
“I think the kids believe in themselves now,” he said. “We tell them over and over again, ‘You guys are good. You’re a good team. You can do this.’ Having a couple big wins really, really helped us.”
But oddly enough, it was a 5-1 loss against Concord (15-0-0) on Jan. 11 that Walsh highlighted as the turning point in the season. Despite the four-goal loss, the game was tied with about 12 minutes remaining. It showed the Falcons they could compete with the top team in Division I.
In addition to building that belief in themselves, Walsh also cited tangible on-ice improvement as reason for the recent success.
“(We’re) winning the loose puck battles a lot more,” he said. “That’s been a bigger thing for us. We’re winning the race to a lot of loose pucks, and then we’re winning the battle for loose pucks, so we have the puck on our stick a lot more.”
Still, Walsh said his team has more work to do. Bow still hasn’t beaten any of the top teams in D-I, so that’s the next step. And, more concretely, he’s hoping his team can find more consistency around the net.
Even Wednesday’s 11-goal performance didn’t quell those concerns.
“We have so many chances in games where the puck is in the crease behind the goalie, and we don’t put it in,” Walsh said.
“In big games against good teams, those have to be in the net.”
Bow now finds itself in sixth place in the standings and has two games remaining, against Manchester Central-West-Memorial (3-10-0) and Salem (7-7-0).
Then, if all goes according to plan, the Falcons will test their newfound confidence in the playoffs, where they’ll have to face one of those top teams if they want to advance.
“We still have a long way to go,” Walsh said. “We have a chance to finish as high as sixth, which no one would’ve thought after that start.”