Manchester romps past Nashua South-Pelham, 8-1, in season-opener

NASHUA, NH — Senior Owen Kelley scored a pair of goals and assisted on two others, leading Manchester Central-West-Memorial to an 8-1 win over Nashua South-Pelham, in the season-opener for both teams, Wednesday night at Conway Arena.

Seven different players scored goals for Manchester, helping make rookie Head Coach Jeremy Baker a winner in his first game behind the Kings’ bench.

“I’ll take the win. In my estimation, it was sloppy. A lot of things we’ve worked on the last two weeks, they’ve seemed to forget it,” said Baker. “As a coach, you like to see the scoring spread around. But to be honest, for this team to be successful, our No. 1 unit is going to have to score on the power play.”

It was a physical and, at times, chippy game, with the teams combining for a whopping 33 penalty minutes. This included a 5-minute major called on Nashua-Pelham Captain Peter Gamache for boarding just 47 seconds into the game. While chasing down a loose puck, Gamache hit Manchester defenseman Connor Cunningham with such force that the sophomore left the ice and flew, head-first, into the glass.

Cunningham collapsed, unconscious, onto the ice and lay motionless for several minutes. He was tended to by the trainer on duty and regained consciousness just before paramedics arrived at the rink. There was audible relief from the crowd, as Cunningham moved his arms and legs and was able to sit up on the ice. He was helped onto a stretcher and take by ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation.

“It was definitely a scary moment,” said Baker. “But he came through in the end, he was up and talking and moving around.”

As Manchester’s players regrouped in their bench area, Baker had a simple message for them.

“Don’t retaliate,” he said. “Just play your game. If you go out there and score two or three goals on a major penalty, that will make them pay the price.”

Manchester was unable to take advantage of the power play but jumped in front with the teams skating 4-on-4, on a goal by by Captain Joey Velez.

Later in the period, junior Lukas Tafe (goal, 2 assists) showed off his puck handling skills on a sensational rush. Tafe streaked into the attack zone, drew the puck back to slip around a defender and flipped the puck past S-P goalie Noah Soulem making it 2-0 with 6:48 to play in the period.

With momentum firmly on its side, Manchester pressed the attack and got a power play goal from junior Brian Baumgartner off a feed from Tafe, to carry a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.

With the teams combining for 15 penalties, Manchester’s specialty units got plenty of ice time. While the power play struggled at times, the penalty killing unit was a perfect 6-for-6 on the night.

“We’ve been working on the power play a lot in practice, because if your power play isn’t working against good teams, you’re going to struggle,” said Baker. “In practice, the penalty kill has obviously been better than the power play.”

Manchester goalie Landon Wilson earned the win, finishing with 22 saves. The senior was especially strong in the second period, as South-Pelham ramped up its attack to try and cut into its deficit. Wilson was up to the challenge, making several strong stops at close range.

Meanwhile, Manchester was able to extend its lead to 5-0 on goals from freshman Josh LeBlanc and sophomore Jake Lessard.

South-Pelham finally broke through with a shorthanded goal by Sean McCarthy off a feed from Gamache to cut the lead to 5-1 after two periods.

Depth and conditioning showed in the third period, as Manchester maintained the intensity it had played with the first two periods and South-Pelham was unable to keep pace. Kelley scored twice in the period, sandwiching a goal by fellow defenseman Mack Tripp (goal, assist).

Manchester will be back in action Saturday, playing host to Bishop Brady-MV-CCA at JFK Arena. Puck drops at 6:20 p.m.