At the start of the 2007-2008 hockey season, Coach Larry Cockrell set four
goals for the team to achieve. First was to win more than half of its games,
second was to make it to Division II tournament, third was to make it to the
semifinals in Salem, NH and fourth was to win the championship. Mission
accomplished. After the Huskies beat New Hampton 2-1 in the final game at the
ICenter in Salem, the team stormed the ice and mobbed goalie Brian Fleming who,
with stellar goaltending, led the team in both semifinal game against archrival
Hebron and the final against New Hampton.
At the end of the final game, when Coach Cockrell entered the locker room, he
was at a loss for words. “If I say anything,” Cockrell said, “I know I’m going
to get all emotional.” Then he led the other coaches around the room for their
traditional post victory handshake (that this time turned into hugs). Assistant
Coach Mike Retelle reminded the team that it was teamwork that brought them the
victory. “Boys,” he said, “how many players did we have on the All New England
Team?” To the chorus of “none,” Retelle said, “. . . we got it done because
we’re a great team.” It was a hard won celebration.
New Hampton scored first just two minutes into the first when Pat Short took
passes from Sam Demerling and George Jenkins and managed to beat Fleming. The
Huskies played tentatively for the remainder of the first, but New Hampton could
not capitalize. In between periods, Cockrell told his charges to calm down and
to play more aggressively in the offensive end. Ben St. Germain, less than a
minute into the second, took the coach literally when he went in and put the
puck, and himself, right through New Hampton goalie Tom Condon.
Two minutes later Greg Haliskoe beat Condon cleanly on a hard shot to the
high blocker side for a power play goal with assists going to Josh Goellner and
Trevor Crevatin. Kents Hill carried the play, and had several good scoring
chances, for the rest of the second but the score remained 2-1. In between the
second and third periods, Coach Cockrell told the boys that if they played the
third the way they’d played the second, that the game, and championship, would
be theirs. They did and it was.