WEST LEBANON — Even if they’re your favorite colors, or at least the shades of your school, seeing nothing but maroon and gold for weeks on end can get a tad tiresome.
Perhaps that’s why the Lebanon-Stevens-Mount Royal boys hockey team came flying out of the gates on Monday night. For the first time in two months, the Raiders had someone other than themselves on the ice, the first of Campion Rink’s many tenants to welcome an out-of-town visitor to its barn.
In earning a 3-1 win over Berlin-Gorham, Lebanon discovered how energizing a small change in the scenery can be.
“Oh, man, it’s been refreshing,” said senior captain Andrew Duany, whose empty-net goal in the final 16 seconds of regulation clinched Lebanon’s first win of the season. “After eight weeks of not playing, it’s been nice to play someone other than men in our own jerseys. You don’t really realize how much you miss playing other people until you actually play other people. It brings a whole new dimension to the sport.”
Heading into the weekend, the Raiders weren’t sure the game even would come off.
The Hanover Improvement Society banned out-of-town teams from Campion for all levels of hockey since December as a COVID-19 pandemic safeguard. That left boys and girls hockey teams at Lebanon and Hanover — not to mention the Hanover Hockey Association youth program — facing potentially unpalatable scenarios of perpetual intrasquad scrimmaging or a season of road games only.
Lebanon coach Jim Damren said he got official word of Hanover Improvement lifting the out-of-town team restriction on Saturday morning. Monday night’s promised snowstorm added a little anxiety, but Berlin-Gorham committed to the long drive south.
“We were in kind of a holding pattern before that,” Damren said. “We had originally heard that we were going to know on Wednesday. Then it was Thursday, then it was Friday morning and then it was Friday afternoon. When I came to practice at 8:40 on Friday night and we still hadn’t heard, I don’t know that I was optimistic that something was going to happen. But I’m just really pleased and really happy that we’re able to do it.
“It’s strange without fans. It’s strange getting here 15 minutes before the game starts, but the kids get to play. I wasn’t sure three months ago that was going to happen.”
Some coaches don’t mind the extra practice time; Hanover girls hockey coach John Dodds admitted last week that it’s good getting added opportunities to teach. Still, there are some things that workouts can’t reveal about a team.
The Raiders’ first lesson came after Aidan Yates and Will McGee goals gave them a 2-0 lead in the game’s first 2½ minutes.
An interference minor against Lebanon defenseman Liam Ouellette unleashed a furious Berlin power play, and goaltender Toby Cromwell was forced into five rapid-fire saves before Michael Cote Jr.’s mid-slot one-timer solved him late in the first period.
That made the first intermission instruction time for Damren.
“The player that was in front, I told him, ‘It doesn’t do you any good to be standing next to the guy,’ ” the coach said. ” ‘You’ve got to be hard on their stick. Pop their stick; tie their stick up.’ Just being next to him isn’t enough.”
Duany’s lesson from Monday? Continue hustling on the backcheck to help a developing defense.
“We’ve got some young kids on the team, and we’ve got to work on the D zone,” Duany said. “All of us have to be aware of the backcheck; that’s a major part of the game. Coach actually said in the corner down there (during the first intermission) that backchecking is almost as important as the forecheck. … It’s something we’ve got to work on, too.”
That’s the benefit of game action against fresh faces.
“The problem with practice is you know what to expect out of everybody on your own team,” Damren said. “When you play somebody else, you have no idea what’s going to happen. You take care of it.”
Hockey didn’t help itself by being in COVID headlines at the season’s outset, most notably with the bundle of cases tied to a rink in Montpelier in last October. Damren wasn’t sure he agreed with people who linked the sport to the spread, “but there’s a lot of people making these decisions that are a lot smarter than me.”
“We’re just doing what we have to do,” he added, “and hopefully taking care of business.”
Having someone else in town should make that business easier to transact.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.