CONCORD – Brooks Craigue unequivocally remains the engine that runs Concord boys’ hockey (12-0-0), and that held true again Wednesday night in the Tide’s 6-0 victory over Londonderry (6-6-0). But as Concord hits the homestretch of the regular season, other contributors for the Tide have emerged. 

Here are three areas to pay attention to as Concord looks toward the playoffs:

Kalan Gaudreault has gained tremendous confidence in net

The senior netminder didn’t face a ton of Grade-A chances on Wednesday night, but he did have a few eye-catching saves in his 19-save shutout.

This is Gaudreault’s first season on the varsity team after spending the last three years playing for JV. Since the start of the season, head coach Dunc Walsh has seen a noticeable improvement. 

“He’s had a really good year,” Walsh said. “Early on, it took him awhile to get comfortable. But now, I think he feels pretty comfortable. Today he made some nice stops. We had the better of the chances, but he made a couple nice saves.”

One particular area of improvement for Gaudreault lies in that always-elusive confidence.

“It’s a big jump from JV to all of a sudden playing varsity and playing every game,” Walsh said.

Concord’s receiving contributions beyond Brooks Craigue’s line

Of the six goals the Tide scored against Londonderry, three came from players not on Concord’s top line (or defense pairing).

Just 1:39 into the second period, Carter Doherty poked in a goal after Jack Shoemaker’s shot careened off the blocker of Lancers’ goalie Aidan Cardosi; less than two minutes later, Trevor Brown scored on a nifty move to the net; and at 9:02 in the period, Tyler Morin found the back of the cage after a shot from Chad LaRiviere rang off the crossbar.

Surely in the postseason, Concord will need its top players to carry to load, but if the Tide continually receive additional offense from the second, third and fourth lines, it will only make them even harder to slow down.

“We can’t always rely on Brooks’ line to do it all,” Walsh said.

And even in a game where he took more of a backseat, Craigue still had a goal and two assists.

The Tide’s aggressive forecheck puts intense pressure on opponents

After making it through a relatively evenly-matched first period, Concord asserted itself physically in the latter 30 minutes of action, in large part due to its forecheck. 

Walsh wasn’t afraid to allow his defensemen to play aggressively.

“Our strength is our forecheck,” he said. “We have some guys that can skate. We’re pretty quick. …  It pressures teams.”

That pressure often leads to opponents making mistakes in their defensive zone like Londonderry did several times on Wednesday. This typically results in strong scoring chances for the Tide.

Overall, Concord walks away still unbeaten in regular season play. With six games remaining before the playoffs, including five on the road, the Tide will look to continue to play consistent hockey that’s sometimes eluded them in an otherwise highly-successful season.

“It was just a good, solid win,” Walsh said of Wednesday’s performance. “I thought we played pretty well for the most part. A couple breakdowns, but we’re not going to play a perfect game. I thought we played pretty solid.”

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