Bishop Guertin's Kate Simpson (6) flips the puck at Hanover goalie Rebekah Rudd during the Cards' 7-4 comeback win Wednesday at Hudson's Cyclones Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HUDSON – There have been signs all winter that this could be the year for the Bishop Guertin High School girls hockey team.

Wednesday’s was perhaps the biggest one – a 7-4 comeback win over superpower Hanover at Cyclones Arena.

“We talked about slaying the giant,” Bishop Guertin coach Scott Ciszek said. “They’ve won for 10 years in a row (minus last year’s Concord-Berlin co-championship). So I give kudos to them, they always have great players.

“Hopefully we showed that this year could be our year, as long as we play to our potential.”

The Cards accomplished one goal of finishing the regular season unbeaten at 13-0, and now the real challenge awaits. But yesterday’s game felt like the ultimate challenge in itself, as the Cards scored six third period goals, including four in the final 3:39, and Hanover self destructed with two costly penalites down the stretch.

Guertin got hat tricks from Jenna Lynch and Kate Simpson, but when Julie McLaughlin buried a shot past Hanover goalie Rebekah Rudd (23 stops) at 11:40 of the third, it gave the Cards a 5-4 lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Simpson added an unassisted power play goal at 13:11 and Lynch an empty netter with 1:04 left.

“We just kept our heads in it, we know we’re a strong team,” McLaughlin said. “We just tried to keep positive and keep our heads up. Our biggest goal was to complete our undefeated (regular) season and we just did it.”

It was a stunner. The Marauders (8-1), up 4-3, were on the power play with just under four minutes to play, when No. 8 took a body check penalty that evened things. It took Lynch (five point day) just three seconds in a 4 on 4 to get the equalizer at 11:11.

And then the meltdown happened. Hanover’s Natalie Morhun, who had a goal and an assist, got called for slashing a few seconds later, and then had some words for an official which tacked on another two minutes, meaning BG would have a power play the rest of the game.

McLaughlin soon scored the go-ahead and it was over.

Stunning.

“We made a couple of mistakes,” Hanover coach John Dodds said. “The key was the unsportsmanlike, which ended up being two minors. They’ve got too many good players to get penalties. We were fine until we got in the penalty box.”

“We talked about teams making mistakes and who is going to capitalize on them,” Ciszek said. “They capitalized on ours in the second period, and we capitalized on theirs in the third.

“Hanover doesn’t have the four lines that it used to,” Ciszek said, “and that allows the rest of the league to play with them. And we showed that today that they finally got tired and ended up taking penalties in the third period, which is what usually happens to the other teams.”

And now Guertin, which got 20 saves from Sarah King, is doing that. The teams were tied 1-1 (Simpson for BG,assisted by Yabroudy; Sage McGinley-Smith for the Marauders on a breakaway, first of her two goals), but Guertin had really dominated, outshooting the visitors 11-7. However, Hanover turned the tables by outshooting Guertin 12-5 in the second and getting goals from Morhun and Sophia Brackett to make it 3-1 after two. Lynch, assisted by Lindsay Hult, cut the gap to 3-2 early in the third but 20 seconds later McGinley-Smith and Morhun (assist) combined on a goal to give the Marauders their two-goal lead back. Lynch (McLaughlin assist) scored her second at 2:37 of the period to make it 4-3.

“We took a little layoff in the second period that cost us two goals,” Ciszek said. “In the third period we concentrated on one shift at a time, coming back and playing like we did in the third period.

“To their nature, they showed the depth that they had the heart and the passion in the third period, and they were able to outshoot them and get the deal done.”

One huge neon sign that this could be Guertin’s year. We’ll know in just over two weeks – the finals are March 13 — when the Cards hope for a plaque instead of a sign.

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