MANCHESTER -- Senior captain Rowan Arndt and his linemates provide the energy for the Concord High School boys hockey team.
In the NHIAA Division I semifinals on Wednesday night, Arndt's line -- led by Arndt's two goals -- powered the Crimson Tide to a 3-1 victory over Hanover at JFK Coliseum.
Top-seeded Concord (18-2) will face the winner of Wednesday night's late semifinal between sixth-seeded Exeter and No. 2 seed Bishop Guertin on Saturday at SNHU Arena in Manchester. The game time has not been announced yet.
Fifth-seeded Hanover finished the season with an 11-7-2 record.
The energy that Arndt and linemates Austin Proulx (freshman left wing) and Jaden Haas (sophomore right wing) bring is why they often start despite being the third line, Concord coach Dunc Walsh said.
Walsh said that line has played very well over the past month. Haas flies around the ice and Proulx has really come on lately, Walsh said.
"We're just trying to set the tone," Arndt said. "We've got three pretty even lines, but we just try to go out there and get our boys going and see what happens from there."
Arndt broke a one-goal deadlock with his second goal of the game.
Crimson Tide junior defenseman Brayden Beauregard stole the puck in the neutral zone and fed it to Arndt, who skated into the offensive zone and went top shelf on Hanover goalie JoJo Drent (22 saves) from the slot with 2:37 left in the second period.
The Bears had the better scoring chances in the second. They also showed some jump to start that period thanks in part to an early power-play advantage.
Hanover went 0-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
"They (the Bears) came out pretty hot so the second goal was kind of an energy shift," Arndt said. "It was definitely needed."
Arndt also opened the game's scoring with 6:02 left in the first period. The center stole the puck from a Hanover player behind the Bears' cage and went top shelf when he turned the corner around the net.
Fellow senior tri-captain Trevor Craigue put Concord ahead, 3-1, with 5:01 left with his transition goal, which was assisted by linemate Cam Roy.
Freshman goalie Carter Heise stopped 18 shots for the Crimson Tide.
Hanover knotted the score at 1-1 at the 4:11 mark of the middle frame with a goal from Ronan Przydzielski.
The Bears had their power-play opportunity with 3:14 remaining and pulled Drent for the extra skater with about two minutes left.
"The third period, I thought we really played well," Walsh said. "Played smart down the stretch. We were cycling it and keeping it low and just burying the puck -- trying to just let the clock keep running -- and then we got that third goal. Couple penalties were scary but our guys did a good job killing that and our goalie was solid."
ahall@unionleader.com