MANCHESTER – A feeling of emptiness permeated out of the Concord High boys’ hockey team’s locker room at JFK Coliseum on Wednesday night. There were surely other feelings, too: sadness, anger, frustration, disbelief, shock, exhaustion.
Losing 3-2 in overtime of the Division I semifinals to Bedford is a tough pill to swallow. Losing a playoff game for the first time in a four-year timeframe magnifies that feeling a hundred times over.
As Bedford’s Javin Manfield slid the game-winning goal behind the outstretched left pad of Kalan Gaudreault at 2:36 of overtime, the Crimson Tide’s dream of winning four straight state championships vanished. Just like that.
Such is the brutal nature of playoff hockey, a side of the equation that this Concord roster had never quite experienced before.
“It’s a feeling that we’re not used to, that’s for sure,” head coach Dunc Walsh said. “Losing’s no fun. Especially when they haven’t tasted much of it in the past four years.”
This year’s senior class lost just five games over its four years. The Tide entered Wednesday at 19-0-0 on the season, including two wins over the Bulldogs, 5-0 and 3-2.
But Wednesday evening just wasn’t the Tide’s night.
Things started encouragingly. A goal from Alex Pelletier that trickled into the back of the net gave Concord a 1-0 lead at 2:45 of the opening period. Carter Doherty doubled the lead at 1:05 of the second.
But Bedford struck back 5:35 later on the power play – a goal from Nick Hadley cut the lead in half. Hadley then tied the score at 5:02 of the third period before Manfield’s game-winner in OT.
Like in practically every game this year, the Tide dominated in terms of shots on goal, firing 37 shots on net compared to the Bulldogs’ 18. Clearly, that wasn’t sufficient. Bedford goalie Evan Johnston stood on his head time and again, turning away tough shots, allowing his team to hang around.
As the Bulldogs gained momentum in the latter part of the second period, JFK Coliseum began to feel more like a Bedford home game. Perhaps that extra energy helped put the No. 4 seed over the top.
Notably, Concord’s Brooks Craigue was held without a point after breaking the Tide’s single-season scoring record on Saturday against Keene. Bedford smothered him all evening.
“All over him. All over him,” Walsh said. “And he played a lot. We wanted him out there as much as we could just because he creates so many chances and makes the guys around him better. They were all over him.”
The performance certainly wasn’t how Craigue or co-captain Joey Tarbell envisioned their senior years ending. Even still, Walsh effusively praised what both have meant to the program.
“Brooks, he’s a special kid,” he said. “You don’t get to coach kids like that. Not only his playing ability, his compete level, his will to win is just second-to-none. Kids just love playing with him and respect him. It’s been a privilege to coach him.
Joey Tarbell’s a four-year player. Solid player for us and had a great career. Just a solid kid. They’ll both do well moving on. They’re great kids.”
Besides Craigue and Tarbell, Walsh admitted before the season that he wasn’t fully sure who else would step up after he graduated nine seniors from last season’s team. He never viewed it as a lock that this team would compete for a championship like last year’s group.
“Everybody thinks we’re like loaded. We’re not loaded. We’re young,” he said. “We have kids out there that didn’t play a lot last year that are playing major roles. Our second line’s got a freshman and two sophomores. We have a goalie that had only played JV before this year. We accomplished a lot. We got better and really improved and maybe overachieved.”
It’s hard to say that a team that started 19-0-0 on the heels of three straight titles overachieved. But at this point, a championship is the expectation, even though Walsh knew things wouldn’t come as easily for this year’s group with more inexperience.
“It’s tough,” Walsh said. “They’re pretty down in there, as I knew they would be if this happened. We had a great year, but they only had one goal in mind, to win that fourth in a row, and it’s not going to happen.”