MANCHESTER — The proverbial lights went out for the Hanover High boys hockey team Wednesday with a 3-1 loss to Concord in the NHIAA Division I semifinals at John F. Kennedy Memorial Coliseum. The game and season, however, displayed what appears to be a bright future for the Bears.

With three freshmen and three sophomores skating regular shifts and with plenty of their classmates on the cusp of doing so, Hanover could be loaded for upcoming campaigns.

“We’re young and this was brand new to so many of our guys,” said 44th-year Hanover coach Dick Dodds, whose team will lose four regulars to graduation in June. “It can be kind of eye-opening at the beginning, when you see all the fans and all the excitement.”

The fifth-seeded Bears, seeking the programs first state title since 2018, couldn’t overcome top-seeded Concord, which accelerated out of the gate, flying up and down the ice at a pace Hanover couldn’t consistently match. The Crimson Tide led, 1-0, after a period and 2-1 after two stanzas before inserting the dagger with five minutes to play.

“It hurts a lot because this group has worked really hard,” said Hanover captain Henry Cotter, a defenseman whose team handed Concord a 5-3 loss at West Lebanon’s Campion Rink on Jan. 20, revenge for a one-goal loss to the Crimson Tide earlier in the season.

“We knew going in, it was probably going to be the toughest game of our season because they play smart and hard and together.”

Concord (18-2) opened the scoring six minutes before the first intermission when Rowan Arndt robbed the puck from a Hanover defenseman behind the Bears’ net.

Arndt swung out front past the right post and beat goaltender JoJo Drent, giving the Crimson Tide a 1-0 lead in shots.

Concord committed its own costly gaffe five minutes into the second period. Hanover (11-7-2) dumped the puck into the left corner and freshman goaltender Carter Heise headed out of his crease, only to slam on the brakes when spotting speeding forward Ronan Przydzielski.

The Bear collected a bounce off the boards and whipped home a wrist shot from a sharp angle with Heise staggering backwards in no-man’s land.

“We had a power play in the second period and another in the third period where we were right on the doorstep,” said Dodds, whose team took only two of the game’s six penalties. “Shot after shot.”

Concord went up, 2-1, three minutes before the second intermission. Arndt stole the puck just inside the blue line, slid past a Hanover defenseman with a nifty shoulder fake and fired a shot from between the circles and into the top left corner.

The Crimson Tide used a late goal to salt its victory away. Trevor Craigue turned a vertical pass through the neutral zone into a breakaway on Drent, swerving right but feathering a shot inside the left post.

Hanover’s junior netminder finished with 15 saves, several of them spectacular stops while scrambling about the blue paint.

“He plays his best in the biggest games,” Dodds said. “On his toes, on his angles. Just quick. He’s very athletic and fundamentally sound and he’s stoic. I love it.”

Notes: Michael Barry, a junior defenseman for Concord, stands 6-foot-8 without skates. A teammate, freshman wing Nolan Walsh, is listed at 5-6. … Cotter, also a soccer and lacrosse goaltender, has committed to play the latter sport at NCAA Division III Illinois Wesleyan University. ... The Coliseum was constructed in 1963 and hosted the professional New Hampshire Freedoms of the five-team Northeastern Hockey League during the 1978-79 season. The Freedoms, an affiliate of the World Hockey Association’s New England Whalers and featuring player-coach John Cunniff, future bench boss of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, drew 208 fans for one game at JFK and moved to Cape Cod for the second half of that season. They later decamped to Richmond, Va., and became the Rifles. Also skating for the Freedoms was future NHL player and longtime referee Paul Stewart.

Tris Wykes can be reached at ctwykes@aol.com.