Bishop Guertin's Elise Harnish celebrates the game's first goal, much to the chagrin of Souhegan's Alice Serbin (22) during the Cardinals' 12-0 Division I prelim tourney win over the Sabers Wednesday in Hudson. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HUDSON – Souhegan High School girls hockey coach Kelli Braley knows one explosive team when she sees it.

So it’s no wonder after getting decisively beaten at the hands of Bishop Guertin for the third time this season Tuesday, this time 12-0 in the Division I preliminary round Tuesday at Cyclones Arena.

“This is the best team BG’s had in a decade,” said Braley. “This is a team that can absolutely go all the way.

“Their technical skill is great, They work well together as a team. It’s clear they’ve been playing and building for a long time , the last four years.”

The Cardinals, now 14-0, will advance to the quarterfinals Friday at 6 p.m. at Cyclones against Keene, which edged Bedford 4-3 in overtime last night. They got a hat track from Jill Scanlon as 10 players got into the goal-scoeing column and Makenna Reekie needed to make only five saves to record her first career tourney shutout.

“It was all about getting everybody involved,” Cards coach Scott Ciszek said. “Everybody comes to practice and works 100 percent at practice, everybody deserved some ice time today and everybody got.

And that’s what pretty much fueled the rest of the girls.”

Guertin got a goal from Elise Harnish, who kept trying to poke the puck past busy but poised Sabers netminder Taryn Quinlan , just one minute in. Three minutes later, Scanlon got her first goal and the Cards were off and skating. They led 6-0 after one, 9-0 after two and outshot Souhegan 47-5 overall.

Other goal scorers for BG were Abigail Richards, Jasmine Shattuck, usual suspects Brooke Yabroudy, Jenna Lynch, Lindsay Hult and Julie McLaughlin, plus Frita Turriza and Riley Molongoski.

McLaughlin added three assists while Hult, Yabroudy, Kate Simpson and Rose Goyette each had two. Evie Holt, Dominique Von Muhlenbrock Rodriguez, and Allyson McMahon all had single assists.

“Every period we started our ‘white line’ (third or fourth line),” Ciszek said. “And they went out and scored each time. It was awesome to see them out there battling in the playoffs.”

Yes, it was a scorefest. But Ciszek knows it’s going to get harder the deeper this team goes, and the Cards tried a couple of different systems for the remainder of the tournament.

Their biggest opponent, likely until they potentially get to the finals perhaps against Hanover – the rematch everyone wants to see – would be overconfidence. Long way to go before then.

“It’s going to come down to practices, keeping them focused,” Ciszek said. “We have to make sure they’re not getting overconfident themselves, that they can skate around everybody else.”

The Sabers, meanwhile, went 1-6 and lost by a combined 29-0 margin vs. BG, but it was that kind of year for a rivalry that is usually very, very close.

“Our little BG-Souhegan rivalry has been fun,” Braley said. “Our bubble popped obviously this year, which is fine. But that’s an absolutely very talented team.”

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