Nor'Easters News
Spring Signups!!
Monday March 22, 2010 The Spring session for the Concord Nor'Easters has begun and it is not too late to sign up. Sessions start Wednesday, April 21st, and take place at the Ice Den Arena in Hooksett. Practices are every Wednesday at 9:30pm for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Please register as soon as possible. The deadline to sign up is April 14th.
Winter Signups!!
Friday January 8, 2010 The Winter session for the Concord Nor'Easters has begun and it is not too late to sign up. Sessions started Friday, January 1st, and take place at the Douglas Everett Arena in Concord. Practices are every Friday at 9:30pm. Please register as soon as possible.
Fall Signups!!
Thursday August 27 , 2009 The Fall session for the Concord Nor'Easters is approaching and it is time to sign up. Sessions start Friday, September 18th, and will take place at the Douglas Everett Arena in Concord. If you plan to skate, please register as soon as possible.
Winter Signups!!
Saturday, January 10, 2009 The winter session for the Concord Nor'Easters is starting and it is time to sign up. Given the low attendance of the last few sessions, there will be a new format for the Winter session. After Saturday, January 17th, there will be no more Saturday ice times. Fridays will be divided between different types of session: Scrimmage, Coed Nights, and Skills Drills. Use the registration form below to indicate which sessions you wish to participate in.| Week 1 | Fri | Jan 16 | Scrimmage |
| Week 1 | Sat | Jan 17 | Skills Drills |
| Week 2 | Fri | Jan 23 | Scrimmage |
| Week 3 | Fri | Jan 30 | Coed Night |
| Week 4 | Fri | Feb 6 | Scrimmage |
| Week 5 | Fri | Feb 13 | Scrimmage |
| Week 6 | Fri | Feb 20 | Skills Drills |
| Week 6 | Sat | Feb 21 | "C" Game - Away |
| Week 7 | Fri | Feb 27 | Scrimmage |
| Week 8 | Fri | Mar 6 | Scrimmage |
| Week 9 | Fri | Mar 13 | Coed Night |
10th Annual Wolfeboro Women's Hockey Tournament
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 The Concord Nor'Easters participated in the Wolfeboro She-Wolves' 10th Annual Women's Hockey Tournament this past weekend. Submitting more of a mix of beginner, intermediate and advanced players than in years past, the Nor'Easters had their work cut out for them.The tournament was organized in a two-bracket, round robin format. Participating in the lower (recreational) bracket, the Nor'Easters opened the tournament Friday afternoon against the She-Wolves Travel "B" team. "We always look forward to our games against the She-Wolves, because the games are always a good, fun challenge," said Nor'Easters coach, Rob Carter.
After several saves, blocked shots, and near misses kept the Nor'Easters off the board, the She-Wolves struck first when the Nor'Easters had trouble clearing the puck out of the slot in front of goalie Donna Martineau. "That's just one of those plays where you know that the longer it keeps bouncing around in the slot, the more likely it will end up in your net," said Carter.
The Nor'Easters didn't have long to worry, however, as Celeste Waring tied it up before the end of the period.
The She-Wolves came out strong in the second, and it was through a combination of luck, determination, and stellar goaltending by Martineau that the Nor'Easters managed to extend their lead throughout the rest of the game.
The final score was 4-1 Concord, with Martineau earning the first "game puck" of the weekend. "She came up with some very important saves at key times in the game. It seemed whenever the She-Wolves were taking over the momentum, Donna came up huge with a key save, and that really helped us stay in it. This is what I would call a close 4-1 win," said Carter.
With one win, and three games to go, the Concord Nor'Easters were feeling pretty good about the games to come.
Saturday morning found the Nor'Easters facing the Riverhawks (White), one of the two teams from Brattleboro, VT, who were both playing in the same bracket. The scouting reports suggested that the Nor'Easters were in for a bigger, faster team that had played a hard-fought game against the Maine Coon Cats on Friday evening. As it turned out, the reports were right on, and the Nor'Easters found that it was all they could do to limit the damage in a 3-0 loss that could have been much worse. Goalie Donna Martineau stopped 36 of the 39 shots directed at her, while the Nor'Easters were only able to manage 11 shots in the game.
The Nor'Easters coaching staff departed Wolfeboro for the day to go over notes and video (well, still images) from the game, in order to come back Sunday morning prepared to meet Brattleboro's sister team. Saturday evening, the She-Wolves hosted for the first time a "50 and Over" game, during which 20 "advanced" skaters set aside their competitive differences to celebrate the theme of the tournament: It's Never Too Late to Skate! This reporter was unable to make the game, but by all accounts, it was a high point in the weekend that saw lots of back and forth play in a 1-1 tie.
On Sunday morning, the Nor'Easters opened the day at 8am against the Brattleboro Riverhawks (Blue). Rob Carter iencouraged the team to play like they did in the third period the day before - with a potentially paradoxical combination of intensity and relaxation, or as winger Amy Cohen put it, "Play hard, but don't freak out." While the team responded with a much more cohesive effort, the end result against an extremely strong Brattleboro defense was unfortunately the same: another 3-0 loss. While the Nor'Easters were able to control the play several times during the game, to quote the coach in those ads for the NHL Network, they just couldn't put the biscuit in the basket.
Perplexed by the contrasting feel, but identical results of the previous two games, the Nor'Easters found themselves locked in fourth place for the tournament, but with a chance to play the part of the spoilers in their fourth and final game Sunday afternoon. After an enjoyable buffet brunch at the Wolfeboro Inn, the team geared up for their fourth game in three days. Disappointed that there were no media around to capture his rousing pre-game speech, which had something to do with being strong and trying to score goals, Coach Rob nonetheless headed out to the bench feeling good about the mood in the locker room. The Maine Coon Cats had won all three of their games so far, but needed at least a tie against the Nor'Easters to win the tournament. An interesting note was that for this tournament, Goals For would not figure into any tie breaking situation. Goals Against was the first tie breaker, followed by fewest penalty minutes. The system effectively reinforced the She-Wolves desire to focus on sportsmanship for the weekend.
After the first couple of shifts, the Nor'Easters were pleased to see that they could indeed skate with such a good team. The beginning of the game saw chances at both ends of the ice, with neither team able to really dominate the game. Things started to look bleak, however, as the Coon Cats put up three unanswered goals, with stellar play from one or two individuals. It was starting to look like those few players might be more than the Nor'Easters could handle.
Showing true hockey character, however, the Nor'Easters stepped up their game, displaying that elusive combination of hard, smart hockey. Concord managed to score two unanswered goals of their own to pull within one. Martineau said, "With a few minutes left in the game, I started watching the clock. I told myself, 'it's okay - we'll call a time out, I'll come to the bench, and we'll figure out a strategy to win.'" As it turned out, an extra attacker wasn't necessary, as center Mary Anne Connelly, who had been somewhat snake-bitten in the previous two games, tied up the game.
The Nor'Easters dug deep for the next thirty seconds or so, as the Coon Cats let it be known that a tie was not what they were after. After Maine's flurry of chances, Concord managed to reclaim some of the initiative, and tried their best to put in one more, but the clock ran out, and the game ended in a 3-3 tie. As the final buzzer sounded, Coach Rob realized proudly that the Nor'Easters were the only team in the tournament to take a point from the Coon Cats.
All in all, it was a highly successful weekend, and everyone is looking forward to participating again next year. The Wolfeboro She-Wolves organization is to be congratulated on running an excellent tournament.
Saturday Nor'Easters Record First Win!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Sheila Weldon scored the game's only goal while Bobby Heghmann withstood a late flurry of shots to preserve the shutout in an exciting 1-0 win against the Wolfeboro She-Wolves Saturday night in Concord. The win was the first for the Saturday Nor'Easters this season, as well as Coach Rob Carter's first in his "career.""I'm very happy and proud to see the progress our team has made this season. If you compare last night's performance with our first games back in the Fall, it's like night and day. Of course, there were a few moments here and there where it looked like things were falling apart a bit, but we recovered quickly, and kept our heads. Win or no win, this was our best game as a team, and we were just lucky enough to come out on top," said Carter in an imaginary interview after the game.
The Saturday Nor'Easters are 1-2 against the She-Wolves this season, with one more game scheduled on March 2, in Wolfeboro. The Saturday Nor'Easters' next game is on Saturday, February 23 at 9:30pm when they host the Lady Monarchs C, Tier 2 squad at Everett Arena in Concord.