CONCORD — The future is now for the Hanover High girls hockey team, which blasted Concord, 11-2, on Tuesday in the NHIAA Division I semifinals at Everett Arena.

Freshman Katharine Moseley scored five goals, three of them during a first period in which the Bears built a 4-0 lead.

Sophomore Casey Wilkinson scored four goals and freshman Pauline Rudd racked up three assists. Behind that forward trio, freshman defender Abby Lindsay skated a regular shift.

Wilkinson “has been on a tear the last month,” said Hanover coach John Dodds, noting that the wing posted a hat trick during an 8-0 quarterfinal victory over sixth-seeded Keene-Monadnock-Fall Mountain last Friday at Campion Rink. “We have freshmen who can jump on the ice and not just play but contribute. That’s important.”

The Bears’ elders weren’t left out.

Seniors Hannah Gardner and Rachel Rockmore each put up a goal and an assist, and classmate Eleanor Edson stopped 11 shots in net. Third-seeded Hanover (15-4-0) faces top-seeded Oyster River-Portsmouth (18-2-0) for the state title on Saturday at Manchester’s SNHU Arena.

“When we can put two lines out there like that, we’re pretty tough,” said Dodds, whose has one trio consisting of Wilkinson, Rudd and Nora Bradley and another of Rockmore, Moseley and Julia Lawe. Lindsay and her senior sister, Faith, form part of Hanover’s rearguard, along with Lucy Braga and Gardner.

“We’ve got two lines that can really pressure people,” said Dodds, who prohibited shooting after his team’s 11th goal occurred with 10 minutes and 35 seconds remaining.

Added Rockmore: “Team defense is always at the top of our list of goals, and it’s really important to our culture and identity.”

Hanover last season skated with two centers, three sets of wings and sometimes only three defensemen. This season’s roster is larger, with Emma Richardson, a freshman, playing with junior Heidi Kaufman and rookie Martina Vale-Dwyer on a third line that saw action from Tuesday’s second period on.

“It makes a difference at practice,” Dodds said of his increased roster size. “Everybody’s playing and developing.”

Concord (15-5-0) was seeded second, but as has been the case for years, Hanover wound up farther down the playoff bracket because it schedules several out-of-state games that often results in losses that are counted in the NHIAA standings.

“We love to play hard games, because that’s when we play our best hockey,” Rockmore said. “Those games help to quicken our pace, our puck speed, for when we bring it back in-state.”

Tuesday’s game was mostly over following the first period. Moseley opened the scoring after 36 seconds by using a toe-drag stickhandling move to slide past a defender in the high slot before chipping a shot under the crossbar.

Gardner pushed Hanover’s lead to 2-0 seven minutes later when her wrist shot from the right point stayed on the ice as it zipped under Concord goaltender Kaylee Dellolacono.

Moseley cashed in a breakaway two minutes before the first intermission and earned a hat trick a minute before that break when she received Rudd’s cross-ice pass and scored from the inner edge of the left circle.

Concord gave itself short-lived comeback hope when it scored the second period’s first goal after only 23 seconds. Moseley answered a minute later when she replicated her previous goal, this time using a one-time slap shot.

“Katharine … getting a goal right away had an impact on her confidence and the team’s,” said Dodds, whose team scored six first-period goals and won, 9-2, against Concord during its season opener.

“I noticed in practice yesterday that she was at a different level, and I said ‘I hope she’s like this tomorrow.’ The other coaches noticed the same thing.”

Hanover held a 34-16 shot advantage.

“It was a team win,” said Dodds.” Everybody was buzzing and cycling and sharing the puck. Even someone who didn’t show up with an assist, like (Bradley) backchecking and making sure good opportunities weren’t given to them in a prime spot. That doesn’t show up on the scoresheet.”

Saturday’s final pits the Bears against a ClipperCats team it beat twice by a combined 10-3 during the regular season and which it overcame last winter with a comeback victory in the title game.

The NHIAA first sanctioned a girls hockey postseason tournament in 2008 and Hanover won 11 of the first 12 championships, including a run of 10 in a row from 2010-2020. The Bears have won two of the last three state titles and will be favored to claim another crown Saturday.

“We’ll be ready,” Dodds said darkly, noting that his players received the short end of the stick during recent all-state voting, the results of which have not been publicly announced. “This team has a lot of motivation because there’s not a lot of respect around the state for Hanover hockey sometimes.”

Notes: Moseley said she competed in club hockey with the New England Wildcats beginning in August. That schedule flowed directly into the high school season, meaning she’s been playing games for seven months. … The game featured a pair of New Hampshire referees’ association members as goal judges, each armed with a small orange pennant on a stick in lieu of actual goal lights. One of the judges was Pierre Belanger, a former referee in the World Hockey Association. He was inducted into the New Hampshire Legends of Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002. Belanger, a onetime hockey star at Berlin High and Oswego (N.Y.) State, has also officiated in seven NCAA Division I men’s Frozen Four tournaments.

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