BY MATT STOUT
MANCHESTER – There isn’t anything flashy about the way the Manchester Central boys hockey team is winning.
Contrary to how Hollywood likes to portray a team’s complete turnaround on the ice, the Little Green aren’t using a variation of the “knuckle puck,” they’re not resorting to fighting a la the Charlestown Chiefs nor are they preparing for the Russians in an Olympic semifinal game.
It’s about basic, fundamental hockey and doing the little things to win games.
And, basically, it’s working.
With a 2-1 win over rival Manchester Memorial on Saturday, Jan. 13 – a game in which defense and a short-handed goal proved the difference at JFK Memorial Coliseum – Central claimed its third straight win and fourth in five games, evened its record at 4-4 and matched its win total from all of last season.
In beating the Crusaders, which had already knocked them around in 6-2 and 6-1 defeats this winter, the Little Green proved they weren’t going to set any scoring records, but they did hold a clinic for blocking pucks and killing penalties.
Whistled nine times for infractions, Central killed off six of Memorial’s seven power plays, including two 5-on-3 situations and a four-minute Crusader advantage in which Jeff Monk scored the game-winner on an unassisted short-handed goal with 9:16 to play in the third. Good defensive zone coverage, though, is just one of the “fundamental things” Central coach Randy Manni has emphasized in practice. Now he’ll have to include a lesson on sustaining momentum.
“This is going to be a big boost for us,” said junior defenseman and Hooksett native Brendan Keenan, who added that the victory is Central’s first over Memorial in the regular season since he’s been there. “They’re … the second-best team in the state, and we just beat them. So if we just keep doing what we’re doing the rest of the season, I think we can surprise a lot of teams and do some damage.”
They already have. Since beating a winless Trinity squad before the holiday break, Central has downed a contender in Salem, 3-1 on Jan. 6, and helped extend a five-game slide for a Londonderry team with a 3-2 victory on Jan. 10.
Meanwhile, the winning streak has shifted the focus from a 1-4 start to its main goal of a playoff berth. With a lighter schedule on deck, the magic number of six wins should be in reach. But as well as Central is playing right now, there are concerns.
Having enough scoring is one. Throwing out a 12-1 loss to Bishop Guertin, the Little Green still have netted just 14 goals to their opponents’ 21, and with goalie David Rivard’s decision to quit the team over the weekend, they only have one goalie on the roster – Hooksett native Jared Cox.
The junior said he’s well aware he’ll need to stay healthy as well as good, but neither has been a problem thus far. Cox has held three of his last four opponents to two or fewer goals, and was rarely out of position in turning aside 18 shots against Memorial.
“For me, finding the puck (is what I’ve worked on), when people are in front of me and screening me,” he said. “But for everyone, (it’s been) just doing the basic things that hockey players need to do to win games.” Now there’s a script worth following.
Game notes
Junior Greg Tebbetts scored Central’s first goal against Memorial, burying a rebound off Brandon Michaud’s shot for a power play score with 6:30 to play in the first. Memorial tied it up early in the third with a power play goal of its own when Cameron Coulombe deflected Kyle Kienia’s shot past Cox 4:23 into the period ... Memorial goalie Matt Flynn made 19 saves in the loss ... Central coach Manni is a 1991 Memorial grad and was part of two state-title winning teams in 1989 and ’91.