A happy group of Cardnals celebrate Friday night's quarterfinal win over Exeter at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – There’s something about the threat of finality that brings out the best in a lot of high school athletes.

It’s evident time and time again in tournament play and that was the case once again in Bishop Guertin’s 4-1 girls hockey quarterfinal win over Exeter on Friday night at Skate 3 Arena.

When Guertin (15-4) was clinging to a one goal lead against the stubborn No. 6 Blue Hawks, their determination set in, if you ask Cards sophomore Carly Green.

“We got in the locker room and really talked about how we don’t want the season to end,” said Green, who had two goals and an assist. “Gracie (BG senior captain Menicci) is like my best friend on and off the ice, and I did not want this game to be the last game I played with her.

“We all talked about there’s no losing this game.”

Thus the defending champion, No. 3 Cardinals move on, set to face No. 2 Hanover on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Concord’s Everett Arena.

But first they had to take care of business, which included trying to contain 13-6 Exeter’s speedy senior forward Lilyan Blood, who managed a goal but could have done more damage than that were it not for the work of Menicci & Co. on her.

“We did a great job, it was a complete team effort,” Cards coach Phil DeVita, whose team lost junior forward Natalie Gaffey in the first period after an inadvertent collision with the bigger Blood. “We were down a skater, and the girls really picked it up and gave it everything they had. We knew we were in for a tough battle tonight, and the girls came ready to play.”

Including goaltender Scarlett Casey, who had 18 saves and more importantly prevented those ever dangerous rebounds.

“Scar,” DeVita said, “played a great game.”

“We had the momentum, we had opportunities but their goalie, she was good tonight,” Exeter coach Andrea Nichols said of Casey.

Green lofted a shot with 27.2 seconds left in the first period that found the smallest opening past Exeter goalie Maria Monge to give the Cards a 1-0 lead going into the first break.

But the Blue Hawks drew Blood, as the senior snuck down low on Casey as Madison Mann poked a loose puck her way 3:19 into the second. However, Menicci, sent up ice on a pass by Green, wristed one in five minutes later to give the Cards the lead for good, 2-1.

“We knew it was going to be a tight game, but if we skated hard and stuck to our plan, that good things would happen,” DeVita said.

Bishop Guertin goalie Scar Casey smothers the puck before Exeter’s Lilyan Blood can do any damage while bothered by Cards defenseman Gracie Menicci (10) as BG’s Natalie Gaffey (5) looks on during Friday night’s NHIAA quarterfinal at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

And another good thing happened from the BG standpoint that allowed the Cards, who also killed off four penalties, to breathe. They were doing everything they could to hold onto that one-goal advantage when suddenly Riley Goldthwaite zipped down the ice on right wing and Olivia Hamilton was staying even with her on the opposite side. Goldthwaite passed it over and Hamilton beat Monge with 3:12 left to make it a 3-1 game. A classic traditional 2 on 1 goal, but beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.

“Once they got the third goal that kind of deflated the momentum we had a little bit,” Nichols said. “But the girls battled hard. … I thought it was a good game, (Guertin) obviously played really well today on both sides. I wish them all the luck in the next round.”

Green added an unassisted empty netter with 1:30 to play to make it absolutely certain there’d be that next round for the Cards. After all, as she said, last night was not the time to end things.

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