Nashua South-Pelham goalie Riley Pelletier makes a save on Bishop Guertin's Luke Vogel, as BG's Brian Jenkins (6) and the Kings' Evan Doughty look on during BG's tourney win Wednesday at Hudson's Cyclones Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HUDSON – They’ve never really been on equal footing over the years but this year it was even more of a disparity between the Nashua High School South-Pelham and Bishop Guertin boys hockey teams.

“Nashua South’s only played three games,” Guertin coach Gary Bishop said after his Cardinal team routed the Kings 11-0 in Wednesday’s Region Four semi/Division I prelim at Cyclones Arena. “They’ve got some kids that aren’t bad players, but they’ve probably only practiced 10 times all year and played only three games. How do you get better?

“They’ve got a ton of freshmen and sophomores, and how do you get better if you don’t practice and play. … I don’t want to embarrass anybody.”

Conversely, in this pandemic season, the Cardinals have played in 13 games, to the tune of 11-2, and umpteen practices. They’ll have game No. 14 on Saturday at 4 p.m. against another Nashua rival, Nashua North-Souhegan, in the Region Four finals/Division I quarterfinals. The Saber-Titans edged Keene 4-3 last night in overtime.

“This season was definitely a challenge,” Kings coach Jordan Sarracco said, as his 0-4 team had to suffer through two pandemic pauses. “I’m proud of the kids and how hard they worked all season long, even through some of the shutdowns. I’m very proud of the team for that.

“We have a lot of young players. We could be strong over the next couple of years, and all I can ask of them is to work as hard as they did during the season, during the off-season, and come back ready to play next year.”

Guertin was just bigger, faster, stronger. Sean Kelley scored just 27 seconds in to set the tone, and the Cards led 3-0 after one, 7-0 after the second and then scored four during the running time in the third.

Brian Jenkins had a pair of goals for the Cards, who had 10 scorers, and Derek Amaral had a goal and two assists. Other goal scorers were Avery Abbott (with an assist) Cam Avery, Mike Kiely (with an assist), Ryan Kelley, Colin Ferguson, Cosmo Siano, Quinn Cepiel (with an assist), while Austin Abbott and Declan Wilkie also had assists. Cards netminder John Casey rarely had to break a sweat in making four saves.

But it wasn’t fun to watch, especially for Bishop.

“I didn’t like anything about today, nothing,” he said. “We were sloppy, they were sloppy. Then once we got a few goals, it became ‘All about me’.

“It’s a whole different year with everybody making the playoffs. It makes it a tough year.”

Kings goalies Cam Reinbold and Riley Pelletier combined for 34 saves. The Kings also lost Matt Migliore after he took a big hit from Guertin’s John Mantone and had to be helped off the ice. Sarracco said later he was fine. But the play cost the Cards a player for two games going forward.

“That’s (Mantone) a second line left wing, so that’s a big loss,” Bishop said.

And that’s the last thing the Cards needed with a tougher opponent ahead. The Saber-Titans are 5-4 and have been competitive in every game.

“It’s going to be a lot different,” Bishop said, “than this game was.”

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