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Out of this world: Astros capture first championship

Monday, March, 16 By Mike McMahon
Staff writer

MANCHESTER, N.H. — After Pinkerton beat two-time defending champion Bishop Guertin last Tuesday, coach Casey Kesselring just had a feeling.

His gut instinct turned into reality last night at the Verizon Wireless Arena, after his Astros downed Hanover 3-0 in the Division 1 championship game.

“They were due for a loss, we were due for a win. I felt like it was our time,” Kesselring said. “After we beat them, I just had a feeling that this was our time. I told our guys after we beat BG that we were the best team in the tournament. But, we needed to go out and prove it one more time, prove it in this game.”

The outlook wasn’t bright in the early going. Hanover came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders, registering the first seven shots of the game, but J.J. Solloway, as he has been for much of the season, was the difference, stopping every one.

No. 4 Pinkerton did not record it’s first shot against the No. 7 Marauders until the 7:30 mark of the period.

“We came out flat,” said Kesselring. “They really took it to us. Thanks to J.J., we got out of that period even, so I just told the guys that we needed to turn tables. They were aggressive but we needed to get the puck out of our zone and get it in deep at the other end to create chances.”

The Astros had their first power play 8:25 into the game when Hanover’s Davey Ivey went to the box for roughing, but they were outshot 3-0 on their own man advantage.

When Dan Elliott went to the box for slashing at the 13:42 mark, the Astros were finally able to turn the tide.

Pinkerton didn’t score, but did pound Hanover sophomore goaltender Brendon Leeming with five shots in a two-minute span.

“That power play gave us momentum,” said Kesselring. “I looked up halfway through the first period and we had no shots on goal. We had some shots that went wide and we had some shots that were blocked, but nothing on net. They have a young goalie so part of what we wanted to do was get pucks to the net.”

Junior forward John Cebula finally relieved some pressure at the 5:21 mark of the second period, taking a pass from Jake Dion along the right boards and cutting to the middle before firing a slow wrister under the pads of Leeming.

“Jake got me the puck and I just tried to find some room,” said Cebula, who last scored Feb. 11. “It was a great feeling, an unbelievable feeling. We got some things going after that, too. We just needed to play our game.”

That bolstered the Astros’ confidence.

“We get that goal and I started to think that this is just our year,” said Kesselring, whose club beat Hanover 3-1 early in the season.

But the tense moments weren’t done.

The Marauders, who have won five state titles (1973, 1993, 2003, 2005-06), didn’t get their first power play until there were 14:00 left in the game.

They made the most of the two minutes, peppering Solloway with four shots, including two point-blank chances at the top of the crease.

Hanover continued to throw pucks at Solloway and pounded Pinkerton with the first nine shots of the third period before Alex Campbell converted on the Astros’ first shot of the frame to make it 2-0.

The senior was in the corner and flung a puck out front, hoping for a bounce, and it ricocheted off Leeming’s and into the net with 8:50 left.

Nick Currier tacked on an empty netter with 20 seconds to go, pushing a puck from just outside the blue line into the gaping cage.

The Pinkerton fans in the crowd of 3,000 joyously counted down the remaining seconds.

“The atmosphere was great,” said Campbell. “Being able to skate over to the crowd, just going crazy like that, was awesome.”