DOUBLE THE FUN
Barker’s penalty shot goal in 2nd OT sends Spaulding to semis
MANCHESTER – Logan Barker scored one goal in the regular season for the Spaulding High School boys hockey team.
The junior forward matched that output on Saturday as his goal with 7 minutes left in the second overtime lifted the eighth-seeded Red Raiders to a 3-2 win over top-seeded Merrimack in a Division I quarterfinal at West Side Arena.
Spaulding head coach Jamie Ferullo said there was “pandemonium” in the standing-room-only crowd after Barker and Red Raiders pulled off the upset. Merrimack, which beat Spaulding, 3-2 in the regular season, finished its year at 15-3-1.
“All the coaches had their arms around each other, and all the kids had their arms around each other (after Barker scored),” said Ferullo in his eighth season as head coach. “The kids just battled it out against a very good team. This is huge for our program, and this is huge for our city. It’s really exciting. The kids certainly earned this one.”
Barker picked up a loose puck around center ice and had a breakaway on the Merrimack goalie before he was taken down from behind and was awarded a penalty shot.
Before the penalty shot, Barker skated around the puck a couple of time at center ice before he began skating toward the Merrimack goalie. Barker, a few feet away from the goal, made a move to his left and sent a back-handed shot that went between the goalie’s body and his stick and into the net.
“(Barker) really stepped up, I couldn’t be happier for him,” Ferullo said.
Spaulding (9-9-2) will face rival Dover, the No. 5 seed, in a 5 p.m. semifinal on Wednesday at Everett Ice Arena in Concord.
Spaulding and Dover met twice in the regular season. The teams tied at 3-3 in the first meeting, and Dover skated off with a 7-3 win in Spaulding’s penultimate game of the regular season. Spaulding went 2-6 in its final eight games of the season, including three straight losses before a 3-2 first-round win over No. 9 Somersworth/CoeBrown.
Wednesday’s late semifinal features No. 2 Oyster River and No. 6 Alvirne/Milford. That game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ve lost a lot (six) of one-goal games this season,” Ferullo said. “The last two weeks of the season the kids really started to come together. It’s really exciting.”
Ferullo said this will be Spaulding’s first trip to the semifinals since the 2014-15 season, and that this was the program’s first win over Merrimack in six years.
“We’re checking off a lot of boxes this year,” Ferullo said.