Nashua's Victoria Hausberger moves ahead with the puck playing for Team King while chased by Bishop Guertin's Riley Goldthwaite (9), playing for Team Flanagan duirng Sunday's Fourth Annual NH Girls High School Hockey Invitational at Tri-Town Arena in Hooksett. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HOOKSET – Kenzley Goode didn’t even see it happen.

The Cushing Academy defenseman fired a shot from the right point that gave Team King 2-1 lead early in the second period en route to a 6-3 win over Team Flanagan in the freshmen-sophomore game of the Fourth Annual New Hampshire Girls High School Hockey All-Star event at Tri-Town Arena on Sunday.

“I didn’t even see it go in,” said Goode, who will be a sophomore at Cushing this fall. “Everyone just came to me and said, ‘Oh yeah (she scored).'”

Goode didn’t score a goal with Cushing this past season. She likely would be at Bishop Guertin if she hadn’t gone to Cushing, but she’s glad she made the prep school move.

“It’s like a family,” she said. “The whole hockey team is close. It’s a lot better. And it was so much fun.”

Goode was one of several locals taking part in the event, three of whom were from Bishop Guertin, playing for Team Flanagan. The teams were named after New Hampshire Olympians: Kali Flanagan of Hudson, who dropped the ceremonial puck, and Katie King of Salem.

This was Goode’s second year playing in the game which her father, Nashua businessman and former Lowell Spinners/Nashua Silver Knights VP Jon Goode, created. She had actually worked as a game staffer before taking the Tri-Town ice last year but this year was a different feeling.

“I felt a lot more comfortable,” Goode said.

The skill level was certainly not the same as your average high school game, where usually just two or three players stand out from the rest.

“In this game, it was like everybody was around the same skill level,” Bishop Guertin sophomore Riley Goldthwaite said. “I found that in the high school games against some of the other teams everybody was a little bit slower moving than in this game was. Everybody was really fast.”

Her Cardinal teammates from this year’s state title team, forward Carly Green and defenseman Haley Gagne, also played on Sunday.

“I was really excited when I found out I was nominated,” Green, the daughter of former Nashua North coach Darryl Green and UMass-Lowell defenseman, said. “He’s (Green) taught me to be a smart player, he pushes me to be the best.”

And the Milford resident said it was fun playing with and against the best.

“It was definitely a little bit different,” she said. “We didn’t play a lot of the girls we played during the high school season, but it was the best girls, so it was a little more challenging. A high level experience. It was definitely very fast. … A lot of great players out here.”

Bedford’s Gagne, who revealed she is leaving BG to attend the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., said she was actually nervous before the game.

“Once I got playing I felt better,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure I was playing my best game. I practiced with a lot of these girls, and we practice at this pace, so I was able to get used to it.”

Still, there were players she wasn’t used to. “It was fun,” she said, “to see what each girl brought to the table.”

Team King defenseman Victoria Hausberger of Nashua, who attends Lovell Academy, a hockey school in Hingham, Mass., is the younger sister of Sophia Hausberger, who played for the Austrian National Team last year after playing in this event last July.

She wants to follow in her sister’s footsteps. “It seemed like an amazing time,” she said. “I hear all (her sister’s) stories and see the pictures, and I really want to go.”

She visited with her family there during Christmas this past year. Sunday may have given her a taste of what the next level is like.

Is there a rivalry between the two sisters? Sophia will be headed to Merrimack College in the fall.

“Sometimes she’ll get up early to go work out and I’ll feel guilty if I don’t,” she said. “This summer we’ll train a lot together.”

In the game, Evelyn Heppler had a pair of goals for Team King. The MVPs were Concord’s Tess Mulkeroon of Team Flanagan, out of St. Paul’s School, and Heppler, who plays for Trinity of Manchester.

TEAM DUNN DOMINANT

Team Dunn, named after Olympian Tricia Dunn, topped Team Mounsey (Concord Olympian Tara Mounsey) 7-3 in the Junior-Senior Game. The MVPs were both from the winning team: Windham’s Julia Pellerin (New Hampton) who had a hat trick, and Dover’s Charlotte Wensley (St. Paul’s).

The teams opted not to have an intermission between the second and third periods as the ice surface was in good shape, thanks in part to a new system Tri-Town is using after renovations.

The game featured a ton of Division I commits, with players headed either this year or next to schools such as Northeastern, Boston College, Holy Cross, UNH, etc.

GAMES ANOTHER SUCCESS

With four of these events in the books – it began in the summer of 2020 – Jon Goode says this one was just that much easier.

“The waiting list and emails we get from girls and parents wanting to play in the game is unreal,” Goode said.

The game has had a variety of dates: From early August, to mid-July, and this year on Fathers Day.

“I think we’re going to stick with this date,” he said. “We had no other hockey conflict, and the dads want to spend Fathers Day watching their daughters play hockey. So it’s the perfect Fathers Day.”