Boys hockey: St. Thomas sticks to game plan to win Div. II championship
Mar. 16—MANCHESTER — The game plan for the St. Thomas Aquinas boys hockey team in the NHIAA Division II championship game on Saturday was no different than it had been all season.
The Saints wanted to use their speed to get a transition game going and jump on Merrimack/Hollis-Brookline/Derryfield early.
St. Thomas's execution was nearly perfect en route to a 4-2 victory over the Warhawks at SNHU Arena.
The first goal came with 5:38 remaining in the opening period and the No. 3 seed Saints (17-4) built a 3-0 lead before fifth-seeded Merrimack/H-B/Derryfield got on the board. Then they survived a late Warhawks comeback bid.
"If you look at our team, you see it from the outside — there's speed everywhere," said St. Thomas senior forward and captain Jackson Estes, who notched a goal and an assist. "We're a super-fast team. All these guys, we watch a bunch of film and we knew we could beat them with speed."
Estes was a freshman on St. Thomas's last D-II title team in 2022 and was part of last year's group that did not make the playoffs. The program earned its third state title on Saturday in its seventh final appearance.
No. 5 seed Merrimack/H-B/Derryfield, in its first season as a three-team co-op, finished with a 14-6-2 record. Previously, Merrimack competed in D-II as a solo program and Hollis/Brookline and Derryfield School fielded a Division III co-op team together.
Estes scored on a long rebound with 5:38 left in the first period to open the game's scoring. He also assisted on junior linemate Aiden Tibbets's rebound power-play goal that came with 1:12 left in the second period, giving the Saints a 2-0 lead entering the third.
The Saints created chances in transition in the first period, easily gaining the line and firing promising shots on Warhawks senior goalie James Brew (21 saves).
"We had a lot of odd-man rushes where we were able to just get around the D with our speed and it created a lot of chances for us," Estes said.
Warkhawks coach Dan Belliveau said St. Thomas's fast forwards put pressure on his defensemen.
In the third period, the Saints pinned Merrimack/Hollis-Brookline/Derryfield in its own end for long stretches in the opening minutes before the teams started trading goals.
"That's exactly what happens in these games," St. Thomas co-coach Chris Plummer said. "When you play with the lead, when you have the momentum, you feel great. When you don't and momentum starts to go away, you start to feel a little more tired and heavy. We talked about this before the game, knowing at some point that's going to happen.
"We preached about don't get too high, don't get too low no matter how the game is going."
St. Thomas pushed its lead to 3-0 with 7:02 remaining on a transition goal from junior AJ Kozlowski.
The Warhawks scored 57 seconds after Kozlowski's tally on a goal from the doorstep by senior Jackson Woods.
Seventeen seconds into their only power play, the Warhawks trimmed St. Thomas's lead to 3-2 on a goal from sophomore Alex May.
"I could come up with all kinds of excuses but at the end of the day, you've got to get out here and play the game from the first drop of the puck," Belliveau said. "I feel like maybe it took us a little while to shake out the nerves and it was probably too late by then."
Merrimack/H-B/Derryfield pulled Brew for the extra skater with 1:08 remaining. The Saints clinched the win with a clearing, empty-net goal by freshman Finn Perry with 36.4 seconds left.
Perry and classmate Cam Aceto assisted on Estes' first-period goal.
Saints junior goaltender Zackary Pattow made 26 saves.
When the Warhawks were threatening, St. Thomas simply stuck to its game plan, Estes said.
"We knew that if we ran our systems, they weren't getting another one and that's what we did and that showed on the scoreboard," Estes said.
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