Hanover's Ronan Przydziekisklski , left, celebrates a goal despite the efforts of sprawling BG goalie Ethan Casey and Ryan Lokken (10) during the Bears; Division I quarterfinal win Saturday at Skate 3 Arena in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – If you take 15 new varsity hockey players and put them in their first tournament situation, the results may not be the best.

The Bishop Guertin High School hockey team found that out on Saturday, bowing to No. 5 Hanover, 5-2, in the Division I quarterfinals at Skate 3 Arena.

“Every weakness that we knew we had, all showed up at the same time,” Cards coach Gary Bishop, his team ending its title defense at 14-5. “We give up a soft goal early, then get one back, but we never got the momentum going, never got the offense going.

“All the things we knew we had some weaker areas with 15 kids coming knew. We had a great year defensively, but we didn’t score a lot of goals, which was one of our problems.”

And when the Bears broke a 1-1 tie with a goal from just inside the blue line by Andrew Rudd at 5:26 of the first, and then got a shorthanded goal by Jack Wilkinson just over five minutes later, it put the offensive-challenged Cards in a 3-1 hole they were never able to climb out of.

“A good start for us, no doubt about it,” Hanover coach Dick Dodds said, his team having now won 12 of its last 14 and set to face either Windham or Keene in Wednesday’s semifinals at Manchester’s JFK Coliseum. “We just wanted to keep things simple, get pucks deep, get pucks on net. … And our forecheck was pretty good today. I think that (shorthanded) goal was big. It gave us momentum.”

The Bears set the tone about as early as they could with a goal by Wyatt Seelig, with the first of two Rowan Wilson assists, just 26 seconds into the contest. Guertin, as Bishop said, got it back two minutes later, Dom Trepanier beating Bears goalie JoJo Drent, assisted by Cam Miller. But it didn’t stay 1-1 for long.

Then it got worse for the Cards in the second period, as Hanover got goals by Ronan Przydzietski on a made scramble in front of starting BG netminder Ethan Casey at 4:44, then one by Wilson less than a minute later vs. Conor Hayes. That made it 5-1 and was about it, although the Cards got one by Gavin Santos unassisted at 1;18 of the third.

The Cards had problems getting open in space as the Bears lived up to their nickname, although not their tradition.

“They did to us what we do to other people, they were very physical,” Bishop said. “And Hanover historically is not.”

That was said more in admiration.

“Our younger kids have really blossomed and developed,” Dodds said. “We definitely have become a lot more physical, and that makes a difference.” Guertin loses eight from this year, and last year’s JV team had just one loss.

“We’ve got some kids coming up, but we’ve got to find that kid to put the puck in the net,” Bishop said.

“A great year, we have 15 kids coming in new and finish in fourth place in the league. I’ll take that.”

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