Holderness, n.h. — Most of the Hanover High girls hockey team filed into the stands at Plymouth State University’s Hanaway Rink five minutes into the first period of Tuesday’s second NHIAA Division I semifinal game between No. 5 Concord and No. 1 Exeter. All were wearing Hanover hockey gear — sweatshirts and jackets, mostly — on Exeter goaltender Isabelle Day’s side of the ice. None, however, were carrying notebooks.

That’s because the Marauders have had time to reflect on their late-February loss to the Blue Hawks, Hanover’s first against a NHIAA opponent since 2012, and compartmentalize it to the part of the mind that fuels competitive drive. They know what they did wrong. This time around, Hanover is determined to not make the same mistakes.

The Marauders, winners of eight D-I titles in the last nine years, will get their second chance against top-ranked Exeter in the D-I championship game Saturday at SNHU Arena after Hanover dispatched 2016 title foe No. 3 Berlin-Gorham, 8-3, in Tuesday’s early semifinal. Senior forward Mahler Meyerrose scored a hat trick and provided two assists. Briland Laycock, the Marauders’ leading scorer, had two goals.

“Exeter is a good team,” Hanover head coach John Dodds said between semifinals. “We worked a little bit on the penalty kill. We were moving the puck well; we just weren’t finishing that day. We’re excited to, maybe, get the chance to see them again.”

Exeter defeated Concord, 4-0, in the late semifinal game to punch its first ticket to the D-I championship in team history. Exeter head coach Geoff Taylor is excited to see his young team face the establishment Marauders in a rematch that is quickly turning into a game between D-I’s old guard against its new.

“You can’t get on your heels, no matter who you’re playing,” Taylor said. “Hanover has got the ability to do that to you. Highly skilled, speed, experience. Probably the ultimate team in the league in terms of dedication to systems and everyone doing their job well. To overcome that, that’s what we took from that first matchup.”

Perhaps most important was Hanover’s performance on the penalty kill, the trigger to its 4-3 loss to Exeter on Feb. 20. It was a perfect 3-for-3 when down a player on Tuesday, allowed limited chances in front of a particularly focused Cici Barton in goal and created a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush that Meyerrose buried to give Hanover a commanding 3-0 lead early in the first period.

“That was our nemesis against Exeter,” Dodds said. “Our one loss, we gave up three power-play goals. I’m happy to see us kill like that, but I’m not happy to be getting penalties.”

Added Laycock: “We had a lot of penalties in that game against Exeter. We kind of had to re-think how we took penalties.”

Hanover scored five goals in the first period and held a 5-1 lead in between the first and second. Laycock opened the scoring just 5 minutes, 29 seconds into the period. Cate Wagner had a particularly strong start to Tuesday’s game and finished the first period with three assists.

Maddie Lyons finished the game with a goal and three assists. Speedy Hannah Curtis had a goal and a helper, and Clare Gardner netted one. Sylvie Alexander assisted on Hanover’s final goal. Barton made 16 saves.

“Despite the fact we have eight new players, there’s eight that were here last year,” Dodds said. “Same building, same night. They know how to prepare. They know what it takes. They’ve been kind of leading the way.”

Berlin-Gorham got on the scoreboard midway through the first period and twice in the third but couldn’t match Hanover’s offense. The Mountaineers finish their season 15-5 overall, with three losses to the Marauders.

Dodds said he was pleased with his team’s performance out of the locker room. The Marauders have plenty of new faces from a year ago, but Hanover has benefited from the right kind of leadership from its upperclassmen. Three of its four leading scorers — Meyerrose, Lyons and Gardner — were on the team last season.

Laycock, the Marauders’ junior forward who will go into Saturday’s title game with a team-high 36 goals and 21 assists, is the lone newcomer. She’s scored in every game but two this season, including all six since the loss to Exeter.

“I think (the loss) was a good thing, actually,” Laycock said. “I think it showed us just how much we have to want it more. It’s actually good that the other teams, that they’re such good competition. It was an eye-opener (for us).”

Saturday’s championship game will begin at 10 a.m.

Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.