Saints turn it on

DOVER — Matt Barnes scored a pair of second-period goals, providing the firepower to lift St. Thomas Aquinas High School past rival Dover, 4-1, in Division II boys ice hockey action Monday at the Dover Ice Arena.

Barnes’ goals came at 7:13 and 9:36 of the second frame, breaking a 1-1 tie to give the Saints (4-2-1) a 3-1 lead, which they would not relinquish.

“It felt good to have the two-goal cushion,” Barnes said. “It was good to have those two goals, but we knew that two wasn’t going to do it for Dover.”

So Ryan Pottier added a big insurance goal in the third period as STA’s defense tightened up to keep the Green Wave (5-2-0) off the board.

“We’ve been walking around the rink with Dover all season,” Barnes said. “We know it’s coming. It’s just a matter of when.”

The two met in last winter’s D-II championship with STA pulling out a 5-3 win for its first ice hockey state title. The two meet again on Feb. 15.

Brendan Chrisom (assist) also scored for St. Thomas, while Colin Chrisom and Chase Gagnon added two assists apiece.

Freshman Britton Dunbar played very well in goal, stopping 21 shots, while Dover counterpart Austin Gilbert made 20 saves on 24 shots.

Asa Forbes netted Dover’s lone goal at 5:20 of the second to momentarily tie the game from Ollie Stevens.

“We had some defensive breakdowns and they played well,” said Dover coach Mike Young. “We can’t seem to get in any kind of rhythm. We haven’t played in (nine) days. And now we play again tomorrow. We just didn’t take care of the puck in our own end. We responded well to tie it up. We gave up a couple. I was just disappointed. I thought our compete level would be better in the third period.”

After a fast-paced but scoreless first period, STA struck 1:34 into the second on Brendan Chrisom’s goal from right in front from Gagnon and Pottier.

After Forbers tied it up, Barnes scored the first of his two to put the Saints up to stay, a blast from the left circle, assisted by the Chrisom brothers.

Two minutes and some change later, there was a Dover breakdown in the St. Thomas offensive zone. Barnes snuck in a pretty bakhander for the 3-1 lead, from Colin Chrisom and John Karwoski.

Dover had a couple late chances on the power play, but Dunbar made several key stops. Ditto to start the third as the power play carried over, but the Green Wave could not slice the margin to one.

“We wanted to get to the dirty areas and try and put pucks on net,” said STA coach Dan Strabone. “Our penalty kill was good today. We started off the third on the kill and that was key, killing that off and kind of stabilizing it. We knew they would come with a hard push, but we were able to stabilize it, dumping the puck in and making them go get it.”

Dover was limited to five shots in the third as STA’s defense held strong. Pottier’s fourth goal proved to be the dagger as Dover was unable to clear the puck thanks in part to a great effort by STA freshman Max Murray keeping it in the zone.

It was Dover’s first game since a 5-3 loss to Goffstown on Jan.10, a nine-day layoff. Saturday’s home game with Spaulding was postponed to Tuesday due to the snowstorm.

“For us this year it’s just a question if we’re going to turn it on before the game,” Barnes said. “We all know we can play. We have a bunch of good skaters and a great goalie. It’s just a question of whether we’re going to come out and play our best brand of hockey. I think we did today. Some of the games in the past (losses to Oyster River and Somersworth/Coe-Brown) we didn’t show up.”

St. Thomas hosts D-I Windham on Wednesday.