Merrimack boys hockey comes back late, beats Windham in OT

MANCHESTER – Aaron Tupper has seen Ryan Downie make the move before, but Saturday night was the first time the Merrimack High School senior watched it work.

It couldn’t have come at a better time for the Tomahawks.

After scoring two goals in the final 87 seconds of regulation to force overtime against Windham, Downie went around the Jaguars goal and beat goalie Christian Bossi to the far side to give Merrimack a 3-2 overtime win at Manchester’s West Side Arena.

The win was the second in a row for Merrimack (5-3-1), after it had gone winless in four straight, and snapped Windham’s six-game winning streak.

“It’s a big victory for us,” Merrimack coach Mark Davis said. “Every year, you hit a couple of hiccups and you hope to work through it and we did. Windham is a heck of a team. They’re not to be messed with. That was a huge win in terms of confidence and taking it further.”

Downie scored all three of his goals in the game’s final 5:50 and Tupper had a perfect view of the game-winner, as his teammate took the puck out of the corner and went around the net.

“He does that quite frequently, but that’s the first time he’s gotten it to work,” Tupper said. “I knew he was going to do it, which is why I sat in front of the net.”

Chad Desautels and Nolan Cunningham each had a goal for Windham (7-3), which hadn’t lost since Dec. 23. During that stretch, the Jaguars had allowed just two goals, and they went through the first 43:33 without giving up any more.

The game was scoreless through two uneventful periods. Each team saw its chances improve as the game wore on, and Windham received the game’s first power play with 7.8 seconds left in the second period.

The Jaguars looked like they might have broken through when a shot by Desautels found the back of the net, but the buzzer sounded before he took the shot.

Merrimack killed off the power play, and had a chance to score, but a shot by Tupper was blocked in the crease by Windham’s Jake Aleksa, who dove to get to the puck. Seconds later, the Tomahawks were called for another penalty, and this time Windham cashed in with Desautels’ goal.

“Coming into a penalty and having to deal with that kind of stress, it definitely wears on your confidence,” Davis said. “Everybody in the locker room is aware that our stats don’t look good when we have a lot of penalties. Our kill rate is awful.”

Cunningham made it 2-0 for the Jaguars 2:03 later, after Windham had stopped a Merrimack rush and got a breakout of its own the other way.

Merrimack got its first power play of the game with 2:28 left, and despite still being down two, Tupper felt it was the break the Tomahawks needed.

“That was our opportunity,” he said. “Our power play can be productive, but to have it in that situation, I think all that momentum it had us ready.”

Downie cut the Windham lead in half 1:01 into the man-advantage, as Bassi got a piece of the shot, but the puck bounced behind him and rolled into the net. Twenty seconds later, Downie knocked in a rebound to tie the game, setting the stage for his game-winner.

“It’s a huge confidence builder,” Tupper said. “It says a lot to the league coming back and getting this win against Windham. We are a strong offensive team and when we get down like that, we don’t give up. We try our hardest because we know we can come back and win the game.”