Manchester squanders opportunity with 3-0 loss to Bishop Guertin

MANCHESTER, NH  – In  a matchup of teams with equal talent, a game will often be determined by which team works harder and has more grit.

Bishop Guertin came into JFK Arena Wednesday afternoon, mere percentage points ahead of Manchester in the Division I standings. The Cardinals out-hustled and out-muscled the Kings, and skated away with a well-earned 3-0 win.

Joe Dekarski scored a pair of goals, including an empty-netter late in the third period, to lead Bishop Guertin (9-5-1, 6th place in D-I). Goalie Connor Hays made 27 saves to earn the shutout.

Manchester came into Wednesday’s game riding a three-game win streak (all on the road), that saw the team playing its best hockey of the season. With a win over BG, Manchester would have leapfrogged the Cardinals in the standings. Instead, the Kings slipped to 7-7-0 and dropped to 9th place in the division. Head Coach Jeremy Baker was disappointed with his team’s effort from the opening puck drop.

“I thought we came out flat. We looked slow and sluggish to me. We had two power plays at the beginning of the game and it was just pretty sloppy,” said Baker. “We weren’t skating — a lot of standing around. Granted we played two games in three days, but we had yesterday of and I thought they would come in with better legs, to be honest with you.

“We seem to struggle against the top teams. We don’t match their energy level. And when you get into the playoffs, games like this are what you’re going to see, where the pace is ratcheted up and the pace of the game is quicker and it’s more physical,” he said.

Manchester squandered another excellent performance in net from Cam Velez. Coming off a 7-0 shutout of Nashua South/Pelham, Velez made 39 saves against Bishop Guertin, keeping his team in the game. Early in the second period, he robbed BG’s Noah Cordeiro and Jordan Delude on consecutive 2-on-1 breaks.

But the Cardinals continued to press the attack and finally broke through, at 4:14 of the second, when Dekarski was able to poke home a loose puck from just outside the crease.

Later in the period, BG extended its lead to 2-0, when Cam Miller ripped a slapshot from the point, which made its way through a cluster of players in front of the net and managed to trickle through Velez’ pads and over the goal line.

Meanwhile, Manchester’s offense was stagnant through the first two periods. The Kings were 0-for-3 on the power play, continuing their season-long struggles on the man advantage.

“We have worked on (the power play) at practice, ad nauseum,” said Baker, adding that his staff is exhausting every option for trying to improve the unit’s effectiveness. “I’ve rotated different guys at the point, I’ve rotated different guys up front. We’re trying to get two lines going with it, it’s just not working.”

The Kings enjoyed a brief flurry of offense midway through the second period, carrying the play over a few minutes and generating some solid scoring chances. Hays was up to the task for BG, including two saves in less than a minute on bids by Manchester’s Lukas Tate.

Perhaps spurred by a fiery talk from Baker during the second intermission, the Kings came out with renewed energy at the start of the third period and swarmed the offensive zone. Less than two minutes into the period, Manchester’s Ryan Marden got loose on a clean breakaway, only to be turned aside by a brilliant save from Hays.

Manchester managed to keep their energy up throughout most of the period, matching BG’s intensity. The effort generated some good looks but the Kings were unable to solve Hays.

“We had a few really good looks in the third period, especially that breakaway. If we can get a goal there, that can change the game, you can get a little momentum going,” said Baker. “But we’ll come back Saturday and see if we can get back in the win column.”

Manchester has four games left in the regular season and two more wins will lock up a playoff berth. They begin this final stretch at home, Saturday, against Berlin-Gorham, in a rare out-of-division game. Berlin-Gorham is Division III but is unbeaten at 15-0-0. They have allowed just 11 goals all season and have not allowed more than two goals in any game. However, they have not played an opponent outside Division III.

The Kings also have games left with Bishop Brady-MV-Concord Christian (0-14-0), Bow (10-6-0) and Londonderry (12-2-0).