HANOVER — Yet another exercise in NHIAA competitive inequality took place Sunday at Thompson Arena. It was there that the Hanover High boys hockey team beat Manchester Central-West, 12-0, during a Division I game in which the hosts went to great lengths to suppress the score.
After taking 44 of the first 45 shots, the Marauders spent the contest’s final 20 minutes mostly passing the puck around the perimeter of the Little Green’s zone. The excitement level approached that created after the Zamboni exits the ice and slick patches of water are drying.
Eric Fisher, Manchester’s upbeat third-year coach, explained that the opening of adjacent Bedford High in 2007 stripped West of much of its hockey-interested population.
Central won the Division I title in 2014, but that’s the same year that the Hooksett school district, long a main feeder to the school, contracted to instead send most of its students to Derry’s Pinkerton Academy.
The Manchester school district approached the NHIAA earlier this year, proposing a boys hockey co-op between its three public high schools: Memorial, Central and West. Memorial won the 2013 state crown, but was a combined 7-28-1 during the past two seasons. Central-West was 2-34 during the same stretch, with one of the victories awarded when an opponent was found to have used an ineligible player.
The NHIAA Classification Committee rejected Manchester’s proposal, citing Article IV, Section IX of the organization’s handbook, which states that a co-op team’s member schools cannot produce a combined enrollment larger than the biggest school in the state. That would be Pinkerton, with an enrollment of roughly 3,500.
Manchester’s subsequent appeal was denied.
Peter Wotton, Dover High’s athletic director and the NHIAA ice hockey committee chairman, wrote in an email to the Union Leader newspaper that the request “failed by a very narrow vote, primarily as a result of the cooperative by-law.”
Central-West took the ice Sunday with a young man who could not stop on his skates and several others small enough to be mistaken for youth league players.
Another competitor was inexperienced enough to not know that you must immediately drop a stick when it’s broken in play, which resulted in his already-overmatched team receiving a penalty.
The Little Green used two goalies, one of whom frequently pitched forward on hands and knees when the puck neared the crease. Central-West’s roster listed four freshmen, 10 sophomores, three juniors and three seniors, although only it only dressed 12 skaters and two netminders.
Players wore mismatched gloves, pants and helmets.
Effort was not a problem, but the visitors’ enthusiasm clearly waned as they endured a lengthy stretch of keep-away throughout the third period, which was played with a running clock.
“Hanover was being respectful and trying not to embarrass us, even though in some respects, it’s a Catch-22,” said Fisher when asked if he’d rather the Marauders had continued to try to score. “I think for my guys, tonight, it was better. If we’d come out of here losing 20-0, it would have been really demoralizing.”
Cameron Woods and Brendan Brigham had hat tricks and Jack Stadheim, Casey Graham, Augie Oberting, Curtis Rice, Nick Lee and Will Fitchman also tallied.
The final shot total was 45-5 and Fisher was pleased his 0-2 team generated three shots during the third period.
He’s also excited that his roster has grown to 22 players, six from West, and is hopeful that the program is turning around. He noted, however, that Manchester Memorial drops to Division II next season.
The bottom line is that Sunday’s game wasn’t very enjoyable for anyone involved.
“It’s always hard knowing what’s the right thing to do in that situation, but we did a great job of moving the puck around,” said Hanover coach Dick Dodds.
He added it was nice to see his team produce early goals after taking 39 shots but scoring only twice during a one-goal victory Saturday at Bow during its season opener.
“We’ll come out and play whoever we have to, but it’s no fun for Hanover to come out and walk over someone,” said Fisher, whose only on-ice victory occurred against Nashua South during the 2017-18 season.
“Good teams like that deserve good competition.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.