Concord girls hockey controls pace, picks up win over Lebanon-Stevens in first round of playoffs

CONCORD - The Concord High School girls hockey team quickly grabbed control of the pace of play and never let go en route to its 5-1 victory over Lebanon-Stevens in the first round of the NHIAA tournament Tuesday at Everett Arena.

Eighth-seeded Concord (10-9) will play at top-seeded Exeter (16-1-1) on Friday at 2 p.m. Ninth-seeded Lebanon-Stevens ended its campaign with an 8-11 record.

The Crimson Tide spent the majority of the contest with the puck on their sticks, outshooting Lebanon-Stevens, 26-7, over the first two periods and 38-12 overall.

“Dictating play is something we always try to do whether we have the puck or we don’t and we know that our better games are played when we’re doing that,” Concord coach Patrick McDonough said.

Concord took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission before adding two more goals to its lead in the second period.

It was far from a pretty goal but Concord alternate captain Lilly Vezina found the back of the net with 5:12 remaining in the first frame to open the game’s scoring. The junior flipped a soft wrister toward goal from the left circle and it appeared as if Lebanon-Stevens goaltender Halle Drew had made the save. Drew (33 saves) got in front of the shot but the puck trickled through the netminder’s legs and over the goal line.

“Having the score in your favor obviously helps everything,” Vezina said. “You have the confidence in your team, confidence in yourself and that’s really what keeps us going. ... To be able to win that period was amazing.”

Vezina also had a hand in Concord’s second goal, assisting on defender Maria Armaganian’s tally from the high slot that came 5:12 into the second period.

Concord went 0-for-3 on the power play in the opening period but capitalized on its lone man advantage in the second. Jaelyn Kelleher put home a power-play goal off an assist from Jaden Morin with 4.1 seconds remaining in the middle frame to build a 3-0 cushion for the Crimson Tide.

Concord finished 1-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

McDonough felt the second period was his team’s best of the contest.

Kelleher, a freshman, scored again 1:57 into the third period to give Concord a 4-0 advantage. Nicole Jones capped the Crimson Tide’s scoring with a rebound goal from the doorstep off assists from Kelleher and Maggie Connolly with 4:29 left.

Makayla Maccioli put Lebanon-Stevens on the board 4:53 into the third period when she scored on a breakaway.

Lebanon-Stevens found itself bottled up in its own end for long stretches and had difficulty generating offensive possessions. It often had to settle for simply clearing the puck or dumping it into the Concord zone in order to make substitutions rather than carrying the puck into the offensive zone and testing Concord goaltender Abby Corbett (11 saves).

Lebanon-Stevens had just five forwards and three defenders available to play entering the contest and two of its skaters left the game with injuries.

“They came, they skated hard to the puck and they took advantage of our short bench,” Lebanon-Stevens coach Brad Shaw said of the Crimson Tide. “They wore us down and they outskated us, they outplayed us, they outshot us.”

As the Crimson Tide turn their attention to Exeter, McDonough knows his team is in for a challenge against the division’s top seed. The Blue Hawks defeated Concord, 7-0, on Dec. 16.

“We know they’ll play tough but we know that any game that we play, as long as we’re playing the way that we want to, it’s in our hands and that’s how we want to play it,” McDonough said.