PLYMOUTH – The Belmont-Gilford and Berlin-Gorham boys’ hockey teams have a bit of a flair for the dramatics any time the two sides meet in the postseason. Two years ago, the Bulldogs pulled out a 3-2 overtime victory over the Mountaineers to bring home a state title. Last season, the Mountaineers returned the favor, beating the Bulldogs in the championship, 2-1, on a controversial call at the final horn.
Wednesday night’s NHIAA Division III semifinal was no different.
Tied at 2 apiece entering the final period, No. 3 Berlin-Gorham netted two goals in the final 1:55 – including an empty-netter for Cameron Cochran to seal the victory – as the Mountaineers skated off Hanaway Rink in Plymouth with a 4-2 win over No. 2 Belmont-Gilford.
Instead of facing Belmont-Gilford in the championship game for the third straight year, the Mountaineers will instead prepare for No. 1 Kennett – which punched its ticket to the finals with a 3-0 victory over No. 4 Somersworth-Coe-Brown in the late contest.
“I don’t know what it is, it’s like we bring out the best in each other a little bit,” Belmont-Gilford junior forward Hunter Dupuis said. “It’s basically just like kind of a boxing match. One round goes to them, the next round goes to us.”
Belmont-Gilford Coach Dave Saball, who led the Bulldogs to a 15-4-1 record in his first season, echoed his forward’s comments.
“We keep bumping into each other … Unfortunately it was the semifinals instead of the finals, but that’s just the way it worked out,” Saball said. “It would of been nice to make the finals three years in a row. We knew one of us we’re not going to get the third one. Unfortunately, it was us.”
With the game entering its final few minutes, Berlin-Gorham’s Noah Schoenbeck was the one who played the role of hero for the Mountaineers. After Bulldogs goalie Bailey Defosie dove backwards to stop a well-placed shot from Owen Dorval, a scrum for the puck ensured. With Defosie out of position from the initial save and a sea of black jerseys in front of him, Schoenbeck found the opening and ripped the eventual game-winner into the net.
It was an admirable effort on the play from Defosie, who separated his shoulder on the play and was forced to leave the game in the final minute.
“I thought there was a lot of black around him, but it is what it is,” Saball said of the play. “They were all over him. … He did everything he could do to try and get it.”
Cochran would deposit an empty-netter with 20.6 seconds left to halt any comeback attempt from the Bulldogs.
“We knew coming into this game that Belmont-Gilford, we always have a matchup with them,” Berlin-Gorham Coach Mike Poulin said. “It’s playoff hockey and you got to bring it every game. At this point in the season we’re only playing two lines and they’re only playing two lines and it’s whoever is in better shape at the end.”
The Mountaineers were the first to strike, creating goals off turnovers early in the game before coughing the lead up twice thanks to the Bulldogs’ power play unit.
Hunter Fauteux kicked off the scoring in the first period, slamming in a rebound off the backhand shot of teammate Dorval for the 1-0 lead but a penalty opened the door for Belmont-Gilford in the closing seconds.
Sophomore Alex Muthersbaugh tied the game up on a power-play goal with six seconds left before the first intermission on a feed from Chaz Hacking. The same thing would happen in the periods to come. The Mountaineers again went ahead by a goal after a breakaway score for Cochran in the second, but a penalty in the closing seconds gave the Bulldogs life in the third.
This time it was defenseman James Buckley coming through on the power play, tying the game less than a minute into the final period.
“I’m proud of my guys and that’s what I just told them,” Sabal said. “Nobody is going to hold their head low. Losing is not fun but they had a great year. They had a good run and we came up a little bit short tonight.”
No. 1 Kennett 3,
No. 4 Somersworth/Coe-Brown 0
There was no gray area with what Somersworth/Coe-Brown boys’ hockey Coach Shane Maurice wanted to see happen this season. His goal was pretty black and white: get to Southern New Hampshire and bring back a state title.
“We failed. It was a great group of kids, we battled through a lot, but this is was our goal. The goal is to win the state championship. If you don’t win the state championship, that’s the end of it. It doesn’t matter where you finish,” Maurice said. “I wouldn’t trade my group of kids for anything. Wouldn’t trade my season for anything, but if you ask every single one of them, they want state … You can’t settle for mediocre. You have to push for greatness and we did and they beat us to it today.”
In a tough test against the top seed in the second of two Division III semifinals at Hanaway Rink in Plymouth, the Bearcats (14-5-1) skated even with the Eagles for nearly two periods before Kennett took off and never looked back.
With Somersworth-Coe-Brown’s Casper Marott and Kennett’s John Biggio doing everything they could in net to keep the game scoreless, it took a pair of breakaways to change the narrative of the game and Eagles forward Connor Doucet was just the man for the job.
With 6:54 to play in the second, Doucet came right out of the faceoff with the puck and cruised down the ice by himself before snapping one past Marott. Doucet received another one-on-one chance in the first two minutes of the third and again didn’t miss to put Kennett on top, 2-0.
“Our boy were there, we would get it going and had a couple moments here and a couple moments there, but we couldn’t string together anything,” Maurice said.
Despite holding a 24-22 advantage in shots on goal, the Bearcats watched on as Kennett’s Reilly Murphy finished them off with the Eagle’s second goal of the third period five minutes later.
Knowing the talent on Somersworth/Coe-Brown’s first line, Kennett Coach Michael Lane was never really comfortable until Murphy’s strike.
“With that offense, Shane (Maurice) does such good job with that team. They have such a dynamic first line,” Lane said. “One goal doesn’t make you comfortable at all. We got a couple of bounces tonight, but that doesn’t take away anything from their season.”
No. 1 Kennett and No. 3 Berlin-Gorham are scheduled to play for the Division III state title on Saturday (12:15 p.m.) at SNHU Arena.