Bishop Guertin's Gracie Menicci has emerged as key player in the Cardinals title defense this winter. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – They had won a state championship three years ago, with a group of senior leaders and filled with skill.

Yet Bishop Guertin High School girls hockey coach Phil DeVita, then an assistant, knew that a freshman was going to be a huge piece of the leadership puzzle going forward.

“When she came in her freshman year, and we had won the state championship, I knew Grace was going to be a leader on this team,” DeVita said. “I really did. She had special skills, a great attitude, and was a team player.”

And has clearly emerged three years later, in her senior season, as a key cog in the Cardinals’ engine and one of the top players in the state as BG tries to defend its title. BG has had a challenging weekend, with a game at Hanover Saturday night followed by one set for Sunday afternoon at Skate 3 vs. another contender, Pinkerton.

“Grace works so hard,” DeVita said. “She can play offense, she can play defense, she can penalty kill, she can do power play. She is one of our leaders, obviously, and basically we feed off of her and our captains. … She’s a special player to be able to do all she does.”

The game is Menicci’s escape from,well, the real world, as real as it may get for a high school senior.

“It’s just a breath of fresh air,” she said. “I get out there, and everything wrong in the world is just gone. I just have my girls, and I just have this sport that I love, and it’s just a challenge for me. I just love getting better every day,and working hard to be better for myself and my team.”

Menicci started skating at age six, and wasn’t really a fan of the hitting in hockey. But her father, Tom Menicci, was a former minor league hockey player and also was a coach, so he urged her to play.

Tom Menicci and his brother started the youth girls team the Dual State River Hawks, the first girls team out of Tyngsborough, and then it was bought by the Islanders program, and Menicci has been with that group ever since.

Not only was Tom Menicci a player, he was also a BG alum, and Gracie knew she wanted to play high school hockey and knew she also wanted to play it at BG.

What appealed to her about the high school game? Rember, kids now have choices to go with other programs.

“I think just playing with my peers, girls that I go to class with,” Menicci said. “And I have an extra hour after school when I get to be with them, and we get to create our own little family. We go, we see each other in the halls, and say ‘Great job at practice’, or ‘Great job in the game’ or ‘Are you ready?'”

Menicci is listed as a defenseman, and that’s her main role, but she could easily be the team’s leading goal scorer if she was a forward. But she likes the defensive view.

“I love defense because I can see the whole game,” she said. “I like to think of myself as an offensive defenseman, so I can play the defense part but if they need me to I can rush the puck or make a play for it. I know my forwards have my back, if I want to step up they’ll play the point for me. Jasmine Shattuck, anytime Phil throws me up at forward, she’ll play the point for me.”

That’s the versatility that the Cardinals have had, and a luxury that many don’t.

But watch Menicci have to cover the other team’s top forward and you see how her skating ability stands out.

“My freshman year, my Dad told me if I want to be a vital part of this team, I just can’t work on things at practice,” Menicci said. “I go home, I ride the stationary bike after practice.”

And, with her father coaching her younger brother’s youth team, she can get extra ice time later if need be. “On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we’ll skate for two hours and work on things,” Menicci said. “So that really helps.”

She may have inherited her superb stick skills, and accurate shooting. But it was really through hard work, as Tom Menicci would have her go on ice in the back yard and just shoot pucks.”

Menicci takes her leadeship role very seriously, because she knew she revered the leaders she had as a freshman, etc.

“It’s like a real exciting part,” Menicci said, “because I know coming in the seniors, I looked up to them, and they said ‘Grace, you’re going to be able to lead this team one day. Knowing that they trust me and see what they can do for me is a strong and important thing and I really appreciated it.”

Of course, Jenna Lynch dominated the BG hockey landscape the last two seasons, but she moved on to the college hockey world and the Cards belong to players like Menicci, Shattuck, etc.

“She was an amazing player,” Menicci said. “She came in my freshman year, and her sophomore year was like her freshman year. She had every skill in the book. I knew that her leaving would be tough for us and I had to take one extra step.”

As much as she loves hockey, lacrosse is Menicci’s main sport, and she’ll try to play both at Plymouth State next year,but lacrosse will be the main focus. But the spring outdoor game helped her keep in shape for hockey, and she played in the summer. But also during the off-season, she did ice work and speed skating, and other off-ice training and gym workouts.

The funny thing? Menicci, while playing youth lacrosse in her hometown of Pepperell, Mass., didn’t get too serious about that sport until she got to Guertin.

“I threw myself into club lacrosse my sophomore year,” she said. “I was never serious about it, I was serious about hockey. Then all of a sudden something clicked with lacrosse and I got more serious about it, I felt better about it and had more confidence with it. I worked hard with it, and now I get to play in college.”

And what position does she play? Well, defense, of course. And if Menicci works as hard as wanting to stand out in the spring as she has for the winter, the Cards will be in good shape there as well.

Who knew? DeVita did, that’s for sure.