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Londonderry scores huge win over Pinkerton

Wednesday, February, 17 By David Willis
Staff writer

SALEM, N.H. — Already sporting a bushy playoff beard that would made NHL players jealous, Londonderry co-captain Colby Austin was sporting a large, furry smile as he left the ice on Wednesday.

“This was great,” said Austin. “This was the last time we seniors were going to play our rivals, it was on our home ice and the crowd was going crazy. We wanted to be aggressive, and it was a great performance by the guys.”

The postseason may not have started yet, but Londonderry was certainly in tournament form on Wednesday.

The Lancers jumped ahead by two goals early, and employed a crushing defensive attack that kept the puck in their offensive zone the whole night, allowing just six shots and rolling to a 3-0 victory over archrival Pinkerton at the Salem Icenter.

“It was just a great overall performance for our team,” said co-captain Nick Donnelly. “Playing Pinkerton is always big, especially tonight for the seniors. We wanted this win so bad, and so many guys stepped up to take it.”

It was the fourth straight victory for Londonderry (8-7-0), a huge rebound after snapping a five-game losing streak. It was also the Lancers’ second win of the year over Pinkerton (4-11-0).

“We started off slow, but we are heating up and we feel like we are building a lot of momentum going into the tournament,” said Austin. “It was a big game (against Pinkerton). The fans were into it and made posters for us. It means a lot to beat them twice.”  

Patrick Maloney put Londonderry ahead just 3:14 into play when he pulled in a rebound and beat Astros goalie Jordan Puzzo glove side.

“Coach always talks to us about how big getting the first goal of the game is,” said Donnelly, who assisted on the score. “It gets the guys going, and we knew their goalie was really good so we wanted to pressure them.”

Assistant captain Troy Muldoon then added to the advantage with 1:10 to go before the end of the first, when he took a pass from Maloney in front of the net and buried the puck with 0:01 left on a powerplay.

Sophomore Mike MacKenzie closed out the scoring 6:16 into the third, when he picked the puck up at center ice, broke in alone and flipped a backhand into the goal.

From there the Lancers continued to apply pressure while preventing Pinkerton from finding any offensive opportunities.

They allowed the Astros just six shots on goal for the game, all handled by junior Cody Baldwin for the shutout. Pinkerton’s best opportunity came early in the third, but Baldwin denied the Astro attacker with his blocker.

With three games remaining in the regular season, against Nashua South (1-12-0), Bedford (12-2-0) and Salem (6-9-0), Londonderry hopes to build momentum heading into the tourney.

“This is definitely a good step towards good momentum going into the tournament,” said Donnelly. “We know we didn’t get the best start. But we are confident and we feel like we could get on a run like Bishop Guertin did (from the No. 8 seed) to win the title last year.”