Offensive outburst lifts Goffstown boys hockey past Merrimack (video)

MANCHESTER - The Goffstown High School boys hockey team looked like it was going to be in for another tight battle Wednesday against Merrimack.

But with the game tied at 1 in the final minute of the first period, the Grizzlies put in two quick goals, and all of a sudden, the offense had awoken.

Goffstown led by five goals on three separate occasions, had two players record a hat trick, and survived a third-period comeback by the Tomahawks to pick up a 10-5 win in Division II action at West Side Arena in Manchester.

Griffin Cook scored all three of goals in the second period, getting one at even strength, one on the power play and another shorthanded, while also adding an assist. Sebastian Beal had three goals of his own and also recorded three assists and Theodore Milianes had a goal and an assist for the Grizzlies (1-0-1).

"It really boosts this team," Cook said. "Everyone is excited about starting the season off strong and scoring goals. It brings the team together early on.

"Getting big leads in games brings everyone up and gets everyone excited. Everyone wants to get more goals. It brings the team together and we want to win more."

But it took a while for Goffstown to get going, as Merrimack (0-1) got the game's first goal from Drew Lemire just 2:10 in and held that 1-0 advantage for most of the first period.

"We came out slow," Goffstown coach Ben Slocum said. "First period, Merrimack was moving the puck around and they’ve got a couple of good skill players. We have a couple of freshmen (on defense) and they held their own. In the second and third period, we settled down and started moving the puck around."

Colby Gamache and Beal scored 27 seconds apart at the end of the first period to give the Grizzlies a 3-1 lead and Cook's power play goal at 4:48 of the second put Goffstown up 4-1.

That's where the scored stayed until Cook found the loose puck at the side of the crease and was able to knock it in with 3:32 to go in the second. Merrimack went up a man when Eric Purcell was called for roughing with 1:05 left in the period, but the Grizzlies cleared the puck and Cook was the first one to it at the other end, as he beat Merrimack's Ben Hardy to make it 6-1.

"I feel like it was pretty big and getting a shorthanded goal is always great," Cook said. "I just hustled and beat the other guy to the puck and brought it around to the front. I shot it and scored."

Zach Stimeling scored for Merrimack with 2.9 seconds left in the period, but Goffstown went back up by five goals just 59 seconds into the third on a goal by Beal. And that's when the Tomahawks started chipping away.

Stimeling added two more goals, including a shorthanded goal with 10:33 to play, to make it 7-4 and Zach Richard added a breakaway goal with 5:09 to play that cut Goffstown's lead to 7-5 with 5:09 to play.

"I feel like we kind of got complacent and that we thought we already had it in our hands," Cook said. "We didn’t play hard defensively. We weren’t focused."

But less than a minute later, Beal got his third tally of the day, and Grady Chretien and Lucas Ouellette scored 49 seconds apart to give Goffstown some breathing room.

"Hats off to Merrimack, regardless of what the score was, they kept battling," Slocum said. "We got a little complacent and they made us pay for it. It gave us the chance to move the puck around and work on the things we needed to work on. It’s still early in the season, so it’s good to get that under our belt."

Merrimack held a memorial ceremony before the game in honor of Hunter Burke, a 2018 graduate and member of the Tomahawks who died in August.