Even in the preseason, the Manchester Memorial hockey team wasn’t happy absorbing a loss, especially at the hands of an in-town rival.

The Crusaders fell in the finals of the second annual preseason Queen City Hockey Jamboree, allowing three late goals in Trinity’s 4-1 win at JFK Coliseum on Sunday, Dec. 9.

Scoreless through 13 minutes of the contest, which included two 25-minute periods, play suddenly heated up for both teams. During one brief stretch, the foes combined for five penalties.

Trinity goalie Chris Tuttle was given two minutes for roughing after pulling the helmet off of an opponent, and five seconds later Memorial’s David McCormick was given a major for checking from behind, earning him an ejection.

Because of the penalty, McCormick missed the Crusaders’ regular-season opener on Wednesday, Dec. 12. If he receives another major, he won’t be allowed to play the remainder of the season. “That was a terrible decision,” said Memorial head coach Kyle McDonough.

“I feel for the guy who got hit, and then it’s just saying, ‘Here’s your punishment.’ It was poor judgment.”

Only 38 seconds after that penalty, Trinity broke the scoreless tie on a shorthanded breakaway goal by junior Colin Robb.

Memorial struck back with 9:59 remaining in the period on Jack Croasdale’s one-timer off a feed from Patrick Bresnahan, and the teams went into the intermission tied.

Trinity’s Nick Chenette took a pass from Josh Polombo during a two-on-one breakaway for the eventual game winner, and the Pioneers added two more late goals – another Chenette tally and a Cameron Foote empty-netter – to cruise to the win.

Heading into the 2007-’08 campaign, the Crusaders expect improvement upon last year’s 10- 6-2 regular season, which earned them the sixth seed in the Division I NHIAA hockey tournament.

“Obviously we don’t want to lose. (The Pioneers) put their chances in, and we weren’t able to. They weren’t pretty, but I’d like to see us get a few of those,” said McDonough. “We didn’t (play physical, in-control hockey) like we needed to, and we need to work on putting pucks in the net when we have the opportunity.”

McDonough said he is looking for contributions from Croasdale, a junior, on both ends of the ice, as well as solid defense from Matt Zimmerman. McDonough said the one-goal performance isn’t representative of his team’s offensive capability, and he expects Kyle Kienia to step up on offense, along with McCormick when he returns from the one-game suspension.