CONCORD, N.H. – At one point during Saturday night’s Division III hockey championship game at Everett Arena, Hollis Brookline-Derryfield’s Conor Sanborn skated over to the small crowd of Warrior fans and gestured for them to cheer.
It was that kind of night for the Warriors and their fans, who really didn’t have a lot to cheer about as Berlin-Gorham skated up and down and all the way around to a 5-1 title win.
“Their speed hurt us,” Warriors coach Joel Sanborn said of B-G. “They’re a good little team. … They’re deep, and it’s not just one line, either.
We really didn’t get off to the start I was hoping. We looked a little flat.
“You know, you dig yourself a 3-0 hole, it’s hard to get out of.”
The Mountaineers dominated, outshooting HBDS by a whopping 37-14 margin, and making Warriors goalie Rylan Morgan (32 saves) the busiest person in New Hampshire. He had no time to breathe easy, thanks in part to B-G players like Tyler Rousseau, who had a hat trick, and Carter Poulin, who had three assists.
Rousseau opened the scoring at 5:25 of the first, tipping in a Poulin blast from the point. Brody Duquette poked one past Morgan four minutes later during a mad scramble to make it 2-0 afer one.
That was all B-G would need. But oh, that speed.
“We’ve been working at that all year,” B-G coach Mike Poulin said. “It’s something that we preach in practice. That’s why we skate all the time.”
The back-breaker came on a Rousseau power play goal at 11:25 of the second, making it 3-0, with assists going to Poulin (who else?) and Ben Estrella.
“It’s very tough to overcome,” Sanborn said. “Berlin did it in the semifinals. We played them tight last year, real tough. I thought we’d match up better with them than we did. We just came out a little flat. … A little deflating.”
Still, knowing that his team had done just what Sanborn referred to, rallying in the semis from a 3-0 deficit, Poulin told his players to keep the pressure on. B-G third period goals by Jamison Walsh and Rousseau, while HBDS’ lone score came from Sal Vella with 1:11 left, as Mountaineers goalie Kolin Melanson had a catchable puck go off his glove.
“We were down 3-0 the other night,” Poulin said, “so we weren’t taking anything for granted. We were keeping the pedal to the metal.”
Sanborn paid tribute to Morgan, who got plenty of thanks from his teammates after the game.
“He played well for us all year, and he had a great tournament,” the coach said. “He was under siege tonight.”
The Warriors, who were scheduled to play only a handful of games, missed two weeks due to a pandemic pause. Still, they came out of that and won three tournament games before Saturday, going 5-2-1 overall.
“You know, I’m very proud of them,” Sanborn said. “We didn’t really have much of a season, and just kept plugging away. Here we are. Unfortunately, we ended up on the wrong end.”
