Take Two: Rabid Bulldogs Once Again Taste Tourney Title

Some of the best rivalries in the history of modern sports really haven't been that competitive.

After all, even the best teams and players have that one foe that presents a seemingly insurmountable hurdle.

For Peyton Manning, that adversary was, for years, the New England Patriots.

Phil Mickelson's has four major championships to Tiger Woods' 14.

And let's not forget it wasn't that long ago that the Boston Red Sox failed time and time again to find a recipe for success against the dreaded New York Yankees. In fact, the local nine witnessed their pinstriped peers compile 26 of 27 World Series trophies between Bean Town championships.

For the Merrimack High School hockey team, that adversary is, without a doubt, neighboring Bedford.

MHS, undefeated entering the last two games of the regular season, fell twice to BHS – 2-1 on Feb. 21 and then 3-1 on Feb. 23.

The victories propelled the 13-3-2 Bulldogs to a tournament No. 3 seed and first-round bye. From there, they squeaked out a 3-2 win against No. 6 Kingswood Regional before earning a hard-fought 5-4 triumph over second-seeded Spaulding.

The back-to-back setbacks seemed to serve as motivation for the 16-2 'Hawks, who maintained the tourney top seed and, after a bye of their own, crushed Goffstown in the second round of the playoffs, 7-1, before thumping Bow in the D-II semis, 5-2, to set up the rematch with Bedford.

And Saturday afternoon, the 'Hawks fell once more, this time on the state's biggest hockey stage at the biggest venue.

MHS, in fact, squandered an early one-goal lead and fell to the Bulldogs 5-2 in front of hundreds of rabid fans from both schools at Manchester's Verizon Wireless Arena.

"Eleven seniors. I mean, 11 of their seniors and two of ours," said Merrimack head coach Kurt Mithoefer of Bedford's experience. "They're also bigger, they have some big guys on there, they're very aggressive, we've seen that before, but they're just more of a veteran style team, so they've got the guys that have done this. They were all here last year, for the most part, and we have a lot of young kids."

Merrimack star Connor Powell struck first, putting the 'Hawks on the board 2:22 into the opening period by flipping a rebound over the outstretched pad of Bedford goalie Stevan Tempesta. Josh Roy earned the assist.

After a back-and-forth first period that saw MHS outshoot Bedford, 10-9, the Bulldogs came out rabid in the second frame.

"I thought guys were very tight. They were excited, for sure, and I think once we got that first period behind us, the kids settled down and started playing the way we normally play," said Bedford head coach Marty Myers.

"In between periods, from the first to second, one of the things we wanted to do was bring up our shot count," he continued. "We knew with the goalie ... anytime you face (Brett) Glendye, he's a great goalie, and we wanted to put the shot count up on him, and you know what? We did. That's for sure."

Kurt Mitchell notched the equalizer, unassisted, 1:13 into the period, and Christopher Viola punched in the go-ahead tally 54 seconds later. Bedford's third strike of the period came when Neil Soucy lit the lamp at the 11:10 mark. BHS outshot Merrimack 18-5 in the second and took a 3-1 lead into the third.

There, Bedford deflated Merrimack's comeback bid when Christopher O'Hara scored an unassisted shorthanded goal 2:40 into the period.

Less than a minute later, Powell notched his second of the game to draw the 'Hawks within two, but O'Hara found an empty net with 1:25 left in the contest to clinch the game and Bedford's second-straight Division II championship.

"I thought the first and third period we did what we needed to do. It was that second period where really kind of got away from it," said Mithoefer. "I don't look at it as any kind of mental handicap they gave us by beating us twice. Really, when it comes to playoffs, the regular season doesn't really mean anything, so you've got to come out, you've got to play and you've got to finish ... I told them going in it's going to take 45 minutes and we only played really 35."

Tempesta garnered 23 saves while Brett Glendye stopped 28 shots for Merrimack.