Salem flexes its power (play), blanks Manchester, 6-0

SALEM, NH — Salem High used four power-play goals to break open a close game and roll past Manchester, 6-0, Wednesday afternoon at the Icenter.

Gavin Doughty had a pair of power-play goals and an assist to lead the Blue Devils. Fellow sophomore Ethan Ross added a goal and three assists.

The loss was the first of the young season for the Kings, which had opened the 2023-24 campaign with wins over Nashua South/Pelham (3-1) and Bishop Brady/MV/CCA (4-0).

Manchester Head Coach Jeremy Baker said he feels the loss could prove to be an effective learning experience for the Kings, who’d been lacking energy on the practice ice in recent days.

“I just told these guys, ‘you’re going to get out of it what you put into it,'” said Baker. “We haven’t had good practices this week and this (loss) is what happens. Salem is a pretty good team and we weren’t ready to play.”

Salem (2-1-0) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals by juniors Max Sylvester and Vinnie Aiello. Manchester wasn’t out-classed, but looked a bit out of synch. The Kings struggled with their transition game, which limited the number of quality scoring chances they could muster against Salem’s senior goalie Colby Savageau (21 saves).

The game began to get away from Manchester in the second period, when freshman Frank Tessier was whistled for a 5-munite major penalty for boarding. It was a borderline call that could just as easily been a 2-minute minor for hitting from behind. Instead, the major penalty gave Salem an extra skater man for a full five minutes and the Blue Devils took full advantage.

Less than a minute into the power play, Doughty was camped out at the corner of the crease and jammed home a feed from Luke Barton to make it 3-0.

A minute later, Doughty was in the right place at the right time and struck again. Manchester goalie Cam Velez (2- saves) made a nice pad stop on a slapshot from the blue line by Salem’s Brody Chisholm. But the rebound kicked right onto the stick of Doughty, who snapped it into the back of the net for his second power-play goal and a 4-0 Salem lead.

But Salem’s power play wasn’t out of juice quite yet.

Early in the third period, with Manchester sophomore Luke Vettes in the box for holding, Max Condon notched a power=play goal to push the Salem lead to 5-0. Condon’s goal was set up by a sensational rush by Owen Doherty, who raced down the left side, sliced in front of the net to draw the defense and slipped a pass to a wide open Condon for the goal.

Moments later, Manchester’s fourth penalty of the game resulted in Salem’s fourth power-play goal, this time by Ethan Ross.

“We’re just not built to play that way, taking that many penalties,” said Baker. “We have to stay out of the box, we have to play with more discipline. Hopefully, that’s something they can learn from and take out of this game.”