Feb. 8-Feb. 14, Division 3: The Weekly Feed

Like a broken record, we again start off this week's Division 3 Weekly Feed with the undefeated (11-0) defending state champion #1 Kennett Eagles. This week, the Eagles skated past Moultonborough-InterLakesand #7 Portsmouth by blowout scores of 10-2 and 9-0 respectively. Sophomore forward Kevin Murphy led the Kennett scoring on Saturday with a hat trick along with an assist. Senior netminder Ricky Gaudreau stopped all 12 Portsmouth shots he faced to record his 16th career shutout. Gaudreau did not look rusty despite the fact that he had had two games off while junior Jonny Parkhurst shut out Laconia and junior Nick Kevlin backstopped the Eagles in the win over Moultonborough. Next for Kennett is a three hour bus trip to face #9 Monadnock on Wednesday. "They are on the playoff bubble, so they will be a hungry team," says Kennett head coach Mike Lane. "We need to be ready to play."

Belmont-Gilford Jeremy D'Amour skated with Simon Campbell of Moultonborough-InterLakes with the LRYA before going their separate ways to lead their respective high school teams as freshmen.

In taking a look at the stats in Division 3 this season, there seem to be two freshmen who have stepped up to join the league leaders in points. These two youngsters are making impacts on their respective teams and have risen to become the top two freshmen scorers in D3. The unique part of their story, however, is not their high scoring output, but the fact that this season is the first time they have not been on the same team. Simon Campbell of Moultonborough-InterLakes and Jeremy D'Amour of Belmont-Gilford played together with the Lakes Region Youth Hockey Association out of Laconia Ice arena since around 2000. They were teammates every year from mites to bantams, usually playing on a line together with Simon's father serving as coach. The two were not given much time to get used to playing without one another, as they matched up in the first game of the Division 3 season back on December 14th. D'Amour led the way for the Bulldogs with two goals and an assist while Campbell added a goal of his own for the MAILers. D'Amour and Campbell, who are still good friends off the ice, are enjoying the challenge of playing against one another and will get to square off at least twice a season for three more after this. While D'Amour and his Bulldogs have came away on top of the first two meetings, Campbell's teams will have plenty of opportunities to regain the bragging rights.

Despite climbing back up to #3 in our Hockey Barn Power Rankings for Division 3, the John Stark Generals found themselves on the wrong end of a disappointing loss Thursday to #8 Hollis-Brookline. Most frustrating for the Generals was the fact that they fought hard against the Cavaliers, but were short-handed in the loss. Junior star Dylan Payea was lost for the game and possible two more as he received a misconduct in John Stark's game against Moultonborough-InterLakes. Per school policy, Payea was suspended automatically for his offense. In addition, Generals starting goalie Tyler LaRose was given a game misconduct against Hollis-Brookline for leaving his crease during a scrum. While the loss was obviously disheartening to the Generals, they rebounded to defeat Pembroke 6-0 on Saturday and if they keep their discipline and composure, should be a top team to look out for in the playoffs.

Fifth-ranked Souhegan continued their hot play this week, as they knocked off Hollis-Brookline 3-1 on Monday and moved to 8-4 on the season with a 5-2 victory over #10 ConVal on Saturday. Leading the way for the Sabers in the win Saturday was sophomore sensation Quinn Carroll who factored in all five of the team's tallies with three goals and two assists. Included in his effort was a highlight reel goal that would make for a great YouTube video. Carroll skated the puck into the ConVal zone on a one on two because Souhegan was in the middle of a line change. He made a move to beat the defenders but lost his footing in the process. As he slid on his back, the puck was still on his stick, above his shoulder. He chipped at it with the back edge of his stick and it popped up and over the goalie. This amazing goal proved further that Carroll is one of the top young players in Division 3. "After losing our big scorers from last year's team, we needed someone to step up and be the offensive force and Quinn has done a fine job at that," says head coach Ed Viola. "Quinn is a very highly skilled player.He can take or give a hit with the best in the league, but he is at his best when the puck is on his stick."