In his last hockey game Avon’s Dionne came home, shined
Avon Old Farms goaltender Josh Dionne (Merrimack, N.H.) ended his hockey career in the same place it began: at the Icenter in Salem, N.H.
The building where Dionne played his minor hockey as a child growing up in the Granite State was the setting for an inspiring coda for a hockey career that will give way to lacrosse when Dionne gives up the ice for grass at Duke University next season on a full athletic scholarship.
The seventh-seeded Winged Beavers needed stellar goaltending to run the table in the Stuart/Corkery tournament, beating No. 3 seed Gunnery on the road, then stunning the more talented Noble & Greenough in the semifinal game on Friday, before slowly putting a stranglehold on Northfield Mount Hermon’s title hopes in the championship match.
I caught up to the jubliant senior as he skated around the ice with his teammates, moments after he’d stopped all but one NMH shot in a 4-1 victory to secure Avon’s eighth prep title in 29 years under legendary head coach John Gardner (South Windsor, Conn.).
“There’s no way to describe that feeling,” he replied when asked what it meant to finish his hockey career in such a spectacular way in the very place where it all began for him as a Salem Saint. “Even to be in New Hampshire where I was born, especially this rink…it’s insane. I couldn’t be happier.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Dionne this season, and Gardner said after the game that when Avon was stalled amidst a 5-5-1 start in mid-January, he approached his senior goaltender and impressed upon him the importance of Dionne’s role in taking the team to the top.
“He and I had a little heart-to-heart,” Gardner said just moments after leaving his team on the ice to continue their victory celebration. “I told him, you’re a great athlete, you’re a great goalie– show it. And he stepped up and did it.”
Against Nobles, nursing a 3-2 lead, Dionne made two brilliant saves in close to keep his opponent at bay. Moments later, Mike Pereira (West Haven, Conn.) scored to make it a 4-2 game, highlighting that ever important maxim of goaltending that says: it isn’t how you make the save, but when you do it that matters more.
Although Dionne would surrender two quick goals to start the third period, he slammed the door the rest of the way to keep it a 4-4 game until Mark Naclerio (Milford, Conn.) broke the deadlock with just 1:27 remaining. Dionne then had to weather a furious assault by Nobles to preserve the win.
That game, considered by more than one NHL scout in attendance to be the best prep game all year, served as Dionne’s springboard to an even better performance in the final.
He won’t be an NHL goalie, and given that he’s turned to lacrosse, Dionne won’t even likely be a minor league netminder taking long bus rides. But on this day, everything came together for him in a place he has always called home.
Tags: Avon Old Farms, Dionne
