Dover revs it up, blanks Bearcats

ROCHESTER — With a pair of games against intra-city rival and league-leading St. Thomas this week, the Dover High School boys hockey team could have fallen for the proverbial trap game against Somersworth/Coe-Brown on Wednesday night.

Instead, the Green Wave came out flying against the Bearcats.

Jameson Goodridge scored just 4:22 into the game and Asa Forbes doubled it before the intermission as Dover cruised to a 6-0 Division II win over the Bearcats at the Rochester Arena. Goodridge also added a trio of assists, while five different Green Wave skaters had a goal.

“I thought the boys were a little frustrated with the way the last couple of games have gone,” said Goodridge about the team's 1-3 record in their last four games. “We just wanted to come out firing tonight and work our hardest to play a full 45 minutes.”

“We preached that we had to be ready to go tonight,” said Dover coach Mike Young. “I was expecting a good fight and I think we got one early, but we came out and played physical. We were able to set the tone early and grind them down.”

Dover improves to 11-3 and is in second place in D-II. Austin Gilbert made 22 saves to pick up the shutout.

“I liked the fact that we had a bunch of different scorers tonight,” Young said. “It wasn’t just one guy, or one line; we received contributions from everybody. We switched things up a bit this week with our lines and we were curious to see how they would do. I think they responded well.”

The Bearcats had a good win against Portsmouth-Newmarket last week but dropped their second in a row to fall to 3-8-1. A month ago the Bearcats took the Green Wave to overtime, losing 5-4. Wednesday they just fell flat.

“I thought Dover came out flying,” said Bearcats coach Shane Maurice. “We kept it close the last time, but tonight they definitely had a lot more drive than we did. When you have a lack of effor, against a team like that, it just won’t go well.”

The Green Wave had a pair of early chances, as both Goodridge and Aiden McDonough had shots in the slot that were saved by Kevin Baker. The pressure continued until Dario Ceppetelli took a shot from the point that was tipped in front by Goodridge giving the ‘Wave a 1-0 lead.

“We were working it well down low,” Goodridge said. “Dario took a good shot from the point and I was just in the right place, at the right time. I was able to get my stick on it and it went in.”

Somersworth controlled the play for a while after and Alexander Plaisted was left wide open in front, but Gilbert made the big save. Goodridge later retrieved a turnover at his own blueline, fed it to Forbes, who took it down the left wing to snipe it home with 5:06 left in the first to double the lead to 2-0.

“My linemates were in the right spots tonight, we were working it well and we were finding each other,” said Goodridge. “The chemistry around the whole team was really good.”

McDonough made it 3-0 at 3:39 of the second. Thirty-six seconds later, Luke Wescott cashed in on another turnover to make it 4-0. Nick Marchuk scored on the power play with a snipe to the top corner from the faceoff dot and Ceppetelli made it 6-0 just over a minute later.

In the first two periods, the Bearcats were held to just a pair of grade-A scoring chances and were largely shutdown by a strong Dover defensive core who kept them to the outside areas of the ice.

Dover will play St. Thomas at 7 at the Dover Arena on Saturday night. Somersworth will face its Rochester Arena rival, Spaulding, at 5 on the same day.

“Another big one this weekend,” said Young. “It was a good game the other night (3-1 loss), but we just came out on the short end. I would like to see us compete like they did last week, but I would like to see us be a bit hungrier around the net.”