BLT nearly sandwiches undefeated foe

HOOKSETT, NH – The Berlin-Gorham-Kennett team arrived at Hooksett’s Tri-Town Ice Arena Monday with an undefeated record.

The Mountaineers left still unblemished, but not unbruised.

Facing 3-6 Bishop Brady-Londonderr-Trinity (BLT), Berlin-Gorham-Kennett spent much of the contest on its heels before right wing Gianna Pizzutto broke through with a go-ahead goal with 13:02 remaining in the contest

“I’ll give them credit. They came out hard and we were flat,” said Belin-Gorham-Kennett head coach Craig Bartoli. “The first half of the game, they blocked a lot of shots. They shut down my top couple players that usually get going … We were like one or two seconds behind every play, you know, waiting a little too long for the shot, things like that that we don’t normally do, but when your goaltender can bail you out like that, it’s always a good thing.”

The hosts, in fact, outshot the visitors, 36-34, but couldn’t get the puck past standout goalie Olivia O’Neil.

“She’s been phenomenal this year, and she kept us in the game when we needed it,” said Bartoli.

BLT head coach Dan Earley expressed some frustration with the net coming off its pegs a few times during the contest, which he said may have disrupted a couple scoring opportunities, but acknowledged he was equally impressed with his team in generating those chances in front of the net.“I think did a good job of shocking them right away. We did a great job of forechecking and had a lot of opportunities that first period,” said Earley. “We have such a low number (of players), for those girls to put out what they did was fantastic.“Our defense has been playing the whole game. They never come off. And I think our forward line decided they want to do the same thing,” he said.

Earley said he hopes the setback well help boost his team heading into the stretch run of the season.

“We played our best game of the season…but came up short,” he said. “This was a very positive step forward for us. We will continue to get better.”

Backstopped by netminder Kacey Yorston, who made 34 saves Monday, BLT enters the second half of the season with a series of winnable game beginning with a road game at 2-6 Salem today at 3:30 p.m.

The team then travels to winless ConVal-Conant for a 2:40 p.m. matchup on Saturday before facing a more difficult road test at 5-2 Oyster River-Portsmouth at 6:15 next Thursday, Feb. 8.

“We should come out around .500 (at the end of the regular season), which is where we want to be to get into the playoffs,” said Earley.

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