Keene boys hockey remains unbeaten with win over Goffstown

GOFFSTOWN – The reaction of Chris McIntosh following the Keene High School boys hockey team’s win Wednesday over Goffstown spoke to the kind of season the Blackbirds are having.

Although Keene has just won, 8-3, to remain undefeated in Division II, the assistant coach felt like his team had left something on the table.

“As much as I hate to say it, because we just won 8-3, but that was one of the poorer showings we’ve had all season,” McIntosh said. “Just defensively, too many breakdowns, and that shot total that they put up is probably a three-game shot total for us.”

The number of goals scored by Goffstown was the most Keene (13-0) has allowed in a game this season, and matched the total the Blackbirds had given up in their last seven games.

Hunter Gallant led Keene with three goals and two assists, while Nate Darwin and Cody Sheild (assist) had two goals apiece. Jason Langevin also had a goal and two assists and Luke Plumley had a helper. Myles Ditkoff made 26 saves for Keene, including 11 in the third period as the Grizzlies (8-5) were trying to rally.

“Myles hasn’t seen a tremendous amount of action throughout the season, but I thought he played one of his better games,” McIntosh said. “But we’ve also set the bar really high, we have high expectations and we expect playing near perfect every time we get on the ice. That might be a little unfair to expect that out of the boys, but we’ve seen them play really well, so we know they can do it.”

What the Blackbirds did was take command of the game in the final six minutes of the first period. Goffstown came storming out to start the game and got a power play goal from Tyler Riendeau to take a 1-0 lead just 2:31 into the game.

Gallant tied it up three minutes later and it looked like the teams were in for a tight battle, but momentum swung Keene’s way when Gallant knocked a rebound past Goffstown goalie Curtis McKay with 5:57 left in the period. The Blackbirds got two more goals off rebounds before the end of the period and took a 4-1 lead into the first intermission.

“We came out with a good pace,” Goffstown coach Ben Slocum said. “We seem to have problems after we get a goal, that we had a bit of a letdown. The goalie made a couple of good saves and we had trouble clearing out the rebounds.”

Kyle LaSella replaced McKay (seven saves) to start the second and finished with 19 saves. Nick Nault and Sebastian Beal also scored for the Grizzlies, who have dropped three in a row, while Griffin Cook and Maggie Fifield had an assist each.

“The two of them (LaSella and McKay), this is their first time playing in goal,” Slocum said. “Within the last four months, neither had set foot on the ice. We knew that coming into the season. I think the boys kept a positive attitude through it. They don’t stop skating.”

Keene took a 6-2 lead into the third and Gallant made it 7-2 with his third goal with 12:24 left in the game. Goffstown took back-to-back penalties after that to go down two men, but the Grizzlies were able to kill off both and Beal scored to make it 7-3 with 8:30 remaining.

Goffstown had a couple of chances to get closer after that, but Ditkoff made a couple of tough saves down the stretch to keep it a four-goal game. Sheild’s second goal with 1:59 left finished out the scoring.

“Hats off to Goffstown, they’re a good team and they’ll be a worthy opponent for anyone moving forward for sure,” McIntosh said. “They’re quick and they’ve got kids who can play. For a while, they were matching up well against us.

“Hockey is an emotional sport, and anyone who comes out to play in this league, it’s anyone’s game. We’ve been successful thus far, but there’s a lot of teams out there that could give us a hard time. Nothing is guaranteed. That’s the lesson we have to learn going into the playoffs.”