The Alvirne-Milford Admirals’ chase for the playoffs gained momentum this week despite a heart-breaking 3-2 loss to Oyster River on Saturday thanks to 4-3 victories over St. Thomas Aquinas last Wednesday and Nashua North-Souhegan on Monday.
Heading into last week, the Admirals’ magic number, or total number of wins and/or losses by then St. Thomas Aquinas and Portsmouth-Newmarket, was 7. It has now lowered by a full two games down to 3. This means that if Alvirne-Milford (A-M) wins their game against Portsmouth-Newmarket on Wednesday, as well as beating Timberlane on Saturday, as long as St. Thomas Aquinas doesn’t beat both Somersworth-Coe-Brown and Spaulding, the Admirals will earn a spot in the DII playoffs. It’s a simple formula. Keep winning, and the cards should fall into place.
The Admirals helped themselves on Wednesday night beating St. Thomas Aquinas 4-3 with the help of the return of solid goaltending from sophomore Kian Corcoran, coupled with goals from Braydon Atwood, who scored two goals on the night, Dylan MacLeod, and Mason Tomkins. A-M played a suffocating style, with the 4-3 final not necessarily being as telling as the play on the ice was as to how dominant the Admirals were.
This win, thanks to the help of Lebanon-Stevens-Mascoma, who beat Portsmouth-Newmarket just before the Admirals and Saints took the ice, lowered the Admirals’ magic number to 5. Timberlane’s loss to Dover and Monadnock-Fall Mountain-ConVal’s loss to Winnacunnet helped the Admirals, as well.
On Saturday, the Admirals finally returned home to play host to the Oyster River Bobcats, and after falling behind 1-0, Alvirne-Milford quickly got two goals back in the first from Bryce Larco and Braydon Atwood to make it 2-1 in favor of the home team.
After a scoreless second frame, Liam Eddy would tie the game for the Bobcats just over halfway into the third, and they would simply carry that momentum through the remainder of the third period, scoring the game-winning goal off the stick of Cayden Giordani with a minute and 29 seconds left on the clock. A tough loss for the Admirals, but they knew they had to bounce back quickly in order to keep their playoff hopes alive.
It was a concern whether the quick turn-around from Saturday to Monday would be detrimental to the Admirals or not, especially facing off against a squad that beat them so handily in the Holiday Tournament back at the end of December. Fortunately for the Admirals, Nashua North-Souhegan’s arguably best player, Jacob Landry, was out for a second straight season in regular season play, as he had earned himself a suspension prior to this matchup.
Alvirne-Milford came out firing, with captain Ceddy Beaulieu scoring the opening goal on a beautiful feed from Bryce Larco to make it 1-0 Alvirne-Milford. The lead wouldn’t last long, however, as junior Brody Sice scored his first varsity goal to even things at 1-1 going into the second period.
After taking a penalty, A-M would answer back with a short-handed goal off the stick of Brandon Ganas, who was the second Admirals player to be left wide open in the slot with the puck, and both found the back of the net, with Beaulieu being the first. The Sabre-Titans would get that goal back just 1:03 later with just three seconds remaining on the penalty to Cade Bouchard, making it 2-2, which is where the two teams would go to the locker room.
In the third, it was Brandon Callahan scoring his eighth and ninth goals of the season to make it 4-2 in favor of the Admirals before the Sabre-Titans would make things interesting, as John Joyce scored on the powerplay with just 1:34 remaining to make it 4-3.
The Sabre-Titans pulled their netminder Zach Veilleux shortly thereafter, and the Admirals had a few chances at the open cage, and although they were unable to find the back of the net, they were still able to find a way to hang on, allowing Trent Scarbro to even up the Scarbro-Veilleux rivalry at 2 apiece with a tie mixed in. A fitting way for these two netminders to finish off their head-to-head high school records against one another. 2-2-1.
Alvirne-Milford will play Wednesday against Portsmouth-Newmarket at Dover Ice Arena at 5 p.m., and then at home, with a chance to clinch a playoff berth on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Skate 3 Arena.
