With 2022 now in the rearview mirror, the teams from the Granite State have an eye towards bigger and better things in 2023. Many of the New Hampshire teams competed in various holiday tournaments across New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. Let’s look and see how the teams ended the calendar year.
Exeter
The Brian C. Stone Memorial Christmas Tournament saw some of the top Division 1 team battle it out. Concord, Exeter, Trinity, and Bedford competed in the four-day tourney that was held at the JFK Arena in Manchester. Concord beat Exeter 6-2 in the preliminary rounds of the tournament and the two would meet again in the finals. This time, Exeter would come out on top in a 3-1 game and hand the Crimson Tide their first loss since February of 2021. Exeter finished 3-1 for the tournament as did Concord. Trinity finished at 1-2 and Bedford went 0-3 despite some close games.
All-Tournament Team: Forwards: Brooks Craigue, Concord; Sam Maurice, Trinity; Cam Snee, Exeter; Defense: Joey Tarbell, Concord; Roger Davis, Exeter; Goaltender: Charlie Mozina, Exeter. Tournament MVP; Charlie Mozina
In the other bracket of the Brian C. Stone Memorial Christmas Tournament Bow, Hanover, Goffstown, and Manchester Central/West squared off. Goffstown dropped games to both Manchester and Bow and defeated Hanover on the way to a 1-2 record. Hanover took out Manchester 3-0 and fell to Bow and Goffstown and finished 1-2. The Bow Falcons handled Hanover 7-3 and Goffstown 6-1. They fell to Manchester, 5-4, and wrapped up with a 2-1 record. Manchester also went 2-1 for the tournament.
Bishop Guertin
Bishop Guertin traveled to Rhode Island to take part in the Mount St Charles Holiday Faceoff. BG defeated Maryland’s DeMatha Prep 4-1 to punch their ticket to the Semi-finals but fell to eventual champion, Fairfield Co-op, 3-1. In the skills competition, Cosmo Siano won the hardest shot contest and Devin Young won the agility skating. Bishop Guertin went 1-2 for the tourney.
The Tuscan Kitchen Blue Devil Classic was held at the Salem Ice Center and featured four New Hampshire teams and Greely High School from Maine. Windham, Pinkerton Academy, and host Salem all went 2-1 for the tournament. Londonderry went 1-2 despite a couple of close 6-5 losses with both the Lancers and the Jaguars.
At the Whittemore Center on the campus of the University of New Hampshire, the Division 2 Oyster River Bobcats hosted the Todd Heuchling & Brian Swift Memorial Hockey Classic. Competing in this tourney were three teams from New Hampshire; Keene, Oyster River, and Portsmouth-Newmarket along with Marshwood-Noble from Maine, Trumbull from Connecticut, and Martha’s Vineyard from Massachusetts. D1 Keene had a good showing going 2-1 for the week with their only loss coming at the hands of eventual champion, Martha’s Vineyard, 6-3. After defeating both Marshwood-Noble and Trumbull with scores of 2-1 and 4-1, the Bobcats fell in the finals 5-2 to Martha’s Vineyard. Portsmouth-Newmarket went 0-3 for the tournament.
In Lewiston, Maine two New Hampshire teams competed in the St Domenic’s Christmas Classic; Division 1 Bishop Brady and last year’s champion, Division 2 Saint Thomas. The eight-team tournament consisted of the two teams from New Hampshire along with Medway Massachusetts, Notre Dame Fairfield from Connecticut, Smithfield Rhode Island and three teams from Maine; Lewiston, Edward Little and host St Dom’s. Saint Thomas lost in a shootout in game 1 to Medway and rebounded to topple St Dom’s, 7-1. On the final day, the Saints lost in another shootout to Notre Dame Fairfield. The shootout losses marked the Saints’ first losses since March of 2021. Bishop Brady went 0-3 for the week.
The Kennett Eagles hosted the 9th annual Peter Hall Christmas Tournament at Ham Arena in Conway, New Hampshire. The three-day tournament featured three Division 3 NH teams: Berlin-Gorham, Kennett & Kingswood. Also making the trip were two Division 2 NH teams: Somersworth-Coe Brown & Dover. The Class A Western Maine Ice Cats from Maine were in attendance as well.
Berlin-Gorham took on Kingswood to open the tournament and rung up a 4-1 victory. The Mountaineers fell to Dover, 3-2 which put them in the consolation game vs Western Maine who they would go on to shutout, 4-0 and finish 3rd overall with a 2-1 record. Kingswood lost to Berlin-Gorham, tied Dover 1-1, and doubled up Somersworth/Coe-Brown to finish 1-1-1 for the tournament. Dover and Kennett met in the finals in what would be a low-scoring affair. The Eagles pulled out a 2-1 victory to go 3-0 and claim their first tourney title since 2017. Dover finished in second at 1-1-1.
Kennett
All Tournament team: Forwards: Sam Seavey, Kennett; Jacob LaPierre, Dover; Michael Cote, Berlin-Gorham. Defense: Robbie Murphy and Sawyer Hussey both of Kennett. Goaltender: Brett Davis, Dover. Sam Seavey was named tournament MVP with six goals.
The Brady Sullivan Christmas Tournament was held at the Merrill Fay Arena in Laconia this past week with four New Hampshire teams competing. In attendance were one Division 2 team; Spaulding and three Division 3 teams; Host Belmont-Gilford, Kearsarge-Plymouth, and Pembroke-Campbell. This was BG’s tournament front start to finish. They outscored their competition in the preliminary rounds, 21-5 and beat Kearsarge-Plymouth in the finals 5-2 to go 4-0 overall. Kearsarge-Plymouth ended the tourney with a 2-2 record after beating Pembroke-Campbell and Spaulding. PAC went 1-2-1 while Spaulding went 0-3-1 for the week.
Brady Sullivan Holiday All Tournament Team: Owen Guerin and Evan Guerin both from Belmont-Gilford, Joey Sullivan from Pembroke-Campbell, Lincoln Manson and Goaltender Owen Garzia from Kearsarge-Plymouth and Cam Taylor and Goaltender Annabel Prochilo from Spaulding.
Four Division 3 teams and two Division 2 teams competed in The Backyard Brawl but it would be defending champion, Merrimack, that would come out on top again this year. Merrimack went 3-0 for the tournament including a 5-2 win over D3 Hollis-Brookline in the finals. The other D2 team, Alvirne, went 1-1-1 tying Nashua North-Souhegan on the final day. Nashua South-Pelham finished second overall in the tournament by way of points and finished with a 2-1 record. John Stark-Hopkinton-Hillsboro-Derryfield and Hollis-Brookline both ended with a 1-2 record overall. Nashua North-Souhegan was a combined 0-2-1 for the week.
The Haverhill Vet Forum played host to the annual Haverhill Christmas tourney that featured two different brackets. Haverhill and Pentucket from Massachusetts were in the bracket with two New Hampshire teams, Sanborn-Epping and Timberlane. Sanborn-Epping finished at 1-1 overall after toppling Timberlane 9-2 and falling 3-1 to Haverhill. Timberlane fell to 0-2 with losses to Pentucket and Sanborn-Epping by scores of 9-2 in both games.
Winnacunnett competed in the other bracket and lost to Nashoba Regional, 4-1, and tied Wilmington, 2-2, a pair of Mass. teams.
