Bishop Guertin's Gavin Santos, left, celebrates his goal with Will McBournie (19) and Bradyn MacLean duirng Monday's 6-2 win over Manchester at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – There was no way the Bishop Guertin High School boys hockey team wanted to wake up Christmas morning with coal in its stocking.

As in an 0-3 record to start the year.

But that’s not going to be an issue, thanks the Cards 6-2 win over the Manchester Kings Monday afternoon at Skate 3 Arena. Guertin can now rest easy, because 1-2 is a lot better than being winless.

“This was a huge one,” Cards coach Gary Bishop said. “Otherwise we’d be 0-3 going into the tournament.”

That would be the Prout School Christmas Tournament on Thursday in Providence, R.I. The Cards already got a sneak peek at what it might be like when they fell to the Prout School 5-2 on Saturday, a game they led 2-1 with 3:20 left and gave up four goals the rest of the way as the wheels fell off.

That’s why yesterday’s win over the co-op of Central-Memorial-West was critical, not only for the record but also for the team’s psyche.

“We moved our feet today,” Bishop said. “Against Salem (in the opener last week), we weren’t moving, we were watching. Against Prout, we gave that one away.”

No giveaways yesterday, although Bishop wasn’t thrilled with two power play goals the Cards gave up in the third period after going up 5-0. The Cards did spread the wealth, as six different players scored.

Gavin Santos got things started with a shot from just inside the blue line that beat Kings goalie Kayden Hines high at 13:12 of the first period, assists going to Sean Schultz and Cam Vaillancourt. Guertin was able to salvage something for their effort in the first 15 minutes that had then completely dominating puck possession for that span.

Guertin broke it open in the second period with three goals, one on the power play. Jordan O’Hearn began the scoring at 4:18, assisted by Mike Ponto. Then BG got two goals just 13 seconds apart. Ponto scored unassisted on the power play for a 3-0 lead at 7:39, followed by Cam Miller blasting it from just inside the blue line, almost surprised when it went in at 7:57. Noah Cordiero got the assist.

“We’ve got the kids who can put the puck in the net,” Bishop said. “We were 12-2 in shots in the first, and in the second we did what we wanted.”

The teams matched goals in the third. Guertin was on the verge of getting running time when Cordiero converted a centering pass from Miller, a bang-bang play at 3:12 that made it 5-0. But the Kings’ Andrew McLaughlin got a power play goal just over two minutes later off a scrum in front of BG netminder Luke Bettencourt (eight saves). Jordan Delude made it 6-1 five minutes later and Cade Tripp scored another goal with a man advantage for the Kings with just under three minutes to play to account for the final.

Bishop Guertin’s Ryan Mogielnicki tries to stuff the puck past Manchester goalie Kayden Hines during Monday’s game at Skate 3. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Bishop Guertin’s Ryan Mogielnicki tries to stuff the puck past Manchester goalie Kayden Hines during Monday’s game at Skate 3. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Now it’s back to Providence, but this time the games won’t count in the standings. BG has Smithfield, R.I. on Thursday and Pilgrim on Friday, and to be determined Saturday. Bishop knows winning one of three would be a big success, so that’s why losing Monday was not an option.

“Oh no,” Bishop said. “Because we’re going down to that tournament, we could’ve been 0-6 going into the New Year.”

And that’s way too much coal, right? Joy to the Cards.