Zach Fox and the Timberlane Owls have won seven straight and are looking to get back to the top of Division 2 once again.
Currently, all of the top five teams in New Hampshire's Division 2 are riding winning streaks of two games or more. None of them, however, rival the seven game winning streak being held by the #5 Timberlane Owls. This impressive stretch started back on January 23rd, when the Owls handed rival #2 Bow their first loss of the year, avenging an earlier loss to the Falcons in the process. Timberlane head coach Andrew Merrick tells that during the streak his team has been "competing harder and working harder and also paying more attention to detail."
The Owls opened the season #1 in our Division 2 Hockey Barn Power Rankings, and rightfully so. They were coming off a 20-1 season that culminated in the school's first state hockey title. Also, they were bringing back a great deal of talent, most notably in the form of Zach Fox, arguably the state's best player. However, the Owls struggled out of the gate to open the season, dropping their opener to Merrimack on their way to a disappointing 2-4 start. "When you win a championship, you get everybody's best game," said Merrick. "We weren't as ready for that as we should have been."
Leading the comeback for the Owls has been the top line of Fox, junior David Evans and junior Ross Ferullo. What might surprise some is the Fox is not even the leading scorer on this top line. His 35 points are second on the team to the 38 of Evans. "Evans is having a breakout year for us," says Merrick. "He's been very consistent game-by-game." Also, key for the Owls have been their top defensemen, most notably senior captain Cam Fagan and freshman Ryan McCarthy. "Fagan is our leader on d and plays a lot of minutes," Merrick explains. "We didn't know if McCarthy was going to be an every other shift defenseman right away, but he has really stepped up and filled that role."

Timberlane's next test will come in the form of theaforementioned #1 Merrimack Tomahawks. The Tomahawks host Timberlane on Wednesday in what is sure to be another classic. After Merrimack took the season opener from the defending champs, Timberlane got the best of them in a rematch in the Christmas tournament. Both teams are now playing their best hockey of the season, and that should make Wednesday's rubber match one of the top games in D2 this week. Merrimack is 9-1 and sitting first in our Division 2 Hockey Barn Power Rankings as well as the league standings. "I don't think that anyone thought we would have ever done this well," said sophomore forward Chris Fortin. "(Our record) is a great accomplishment...but the season is far from over and we still have a lot of challenging teams to play."
Tomahawk junior forward and leading scorer Tyler Caron echoes those sentiments. "In our eyes, we haven't accomplished anything yet. We have a lot of season to go, so our goal is to keep scoring and win as many games as possible."

Also sitting in the top five is #3 Goffstown. The Grizzlies (8-2-2 within the division) have suffered just one loss in their last eight games. They are second in the league in total goals scored, and they rely heavily upon their offense to score goals in bunches. Much of the Grizzlies scoring comes from senior forwards Andrew Gordon and Riley Palmer, who are leaderson the ice and in the locker room. These dynamic scorers have made Goffstown a very fun team to watch this season, and they look to continue that through the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs. "We are very happy with our record, but I always remind the kids it's not where you start the season that's important, it's where you finish," says Goffstown head coach Paul Roy. "We are looking forward to a successful second half and an exciting playoff run."