Nashua South-Pelham's Brendan Skelley tries to jam the puck past a sprawling Alvirne-Milford goalie Mason Komarek during Thursday's Backyard Brawl holiday tourney at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – They always seem to love brawlin’ around the holidays.

To be sure, the Nashua High School South-Pelham boys hockey team seems to play its best in whatever annual holiday tourney is at Conway Arena, the latest being the Backyard Brawl. The Kings won it last year and Thursday got off to a great start in this year’s event with at 6-1 win over Alvirne-Milford.

“The boys love to play in front of the hometown crowd and playing local teams,” Kings coach Jordan Sarracco said. “It means a lot to them and it brings out the best in them.”

The Kings took all three points (won each 25-minute half, plus a point for the overall win) and lead the standings after the first day. In the nightcap, Merrimack-Hollis Brookline-Derryfield tied Nashua North-Souhegan, 3-3. That gives those two 1.5 points each as the Saber Titans led 2-1 after the first half and MHBDS took the second half by the same tally. There is no overtime, and the teams split the overall point.

Today MHBDS faces Alvirne-Milford at 1:10 p.m. and North-Souhegan and South-Pelham square off in a much anticipated meeting at approximately 2:50 p.m. If the Kings get another three points, they’d be in the tourney drivers seat with only Saturday left.

In the Kings’ win, Andrew Byrne had two goals to lead the way, both coming in the first half. Broden Landsteiner had a goal and two assists, Brendon Doughty a goal and an assist, while the other goals were by Brendan Skelley and Brian Keefe. Gavin Asimakopoulos had two assists while others went to Adam Roberge, Chase Stuart and Dan Ramahlo.

The Kings did what they hadn’t been doing the first two games – they shot the puck, putting 37 on the Admirals goalie combo of Mason Komarek (15 saves) and Ari Scarbro (16).That shot total was more than their first two regular season games combined.

“We definitely shot the puck more today, hopefully that sets in,” Sarracco said. “When we get the puck on net, the puck goes in a lot more than it has in the past.”

The Kings lost goalie Ethan Robinson, dazed from a huge scramble in front of the net, but Nathan Soule made perhaps the biggest save with just over two minutes left. Alvirne-Milford, down 6-0, had gotten a power play goal by Braydon Atwood 5:17 into the second half, and had they scored one more they would have forced the Kings to split that second half point. But Soule made a big stop, and the Admirals had to relinquish all three points to the Kings.

“It was a little post-Christmas hangover where we weren’t quite ready to start the game,” Admirals coach Jason Dango said. “Afternoon games are always a little tougher, they’re used to the night games. But we don’t want to make excuses, definitely we weren’t good enough today. We’ll chalk it up to a learning experience and try get back at it (today).”

MHBDS forward Alex Gertz tries to get to the bouncing puck in front of North-Souhegan goalie Tony Venzia during Thursday’s first day of the Backyard Brawl holiday tourney at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MHBDS 3, NORTH-SOUHEGAN 3

The second game was superb, and the tie was created when MHBDS’ Jackson Woods during a mad scramble jumped on puck that had hit the crossbar and appeared to beat North-Souhegan goalie Tony Venzia, who really never saw it with 6:28 left. Evidently Alex Gertz got a stick on it on its way in, getting credit for the tip /goal.

“That’s hard to do, so close to the net,” WarHawks coach Dan Belliveau said. “Nobody else knew where the puck was.”

Add to that the drama of a breakaway by Saber-Titan Callen Cullity with just 39 seconds left. But the WarHawks James Brew made the biggest save of the day, preserving the tie with Cullity slamming his stick down in frustration.

“James is really working hard,” MHBDS coach Dan Belliveau said. “Whether it’s a holiday tournament game or regular season, the kid wants to compete. And he’s capable of making those types of saves, fortunately.”

“It was a good game, we’ll take it,” Saber-Titans coach Chris Zarlenga said. “A good hard-fought game. We’re starting to score a little more goals, get some more offense.”

North-Souhegan never trailed. It got a fluke type goal to start, nearly five minutes in, when Conor Prunier flung a rolling puck into the attacking zone and it took a bad bounce past Brew for a 1-0 lead. The WarHawks tied it nine minutes later on a power play goal by Felix Rattnude, assisted by Will Farrell. N-S took a 2-1 lead into the break thanks to Prunier’s second goal a minute later, assisted by Connor O’Neil.

The teams kept trading goals. A Farrell goal tied it at 2 nearly five minutes into the second half, the Saber-Titans got a 3-2 lead in the last second of a 5-on-3 advantage on a long shot by Brody Sice.

The second day today will be interesting.

“That’s what we want,” Zarlenga said. “We want to have fun, come in here, work hard and get better every day.”