Bishop Guertin's Jordan Delude (6), looks up to see the puck in the net along with Concord's Cameron Roy, left, while BG's Michael Ponto and goalie Connor Hayes sprawl on the ice during theTide's 5-1 win Saturday at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNSBOROUGH, Mass. – The refrain for the Bishop Guertin High School boys hockey team Saturday was a familiar one when it faces Concord: Opportunities missed early, and suddenly they’re skating up ice against the Tide.

Guertin hit two posts and missed on a two-on-zero breakaway in the first period, and eventually the Cards fell 5-1 to the unbeaten Crimson Tide at Skate 3 Arena.

“It could have been 3-0 and it wasn’t,” Guertin coach Gary Bishop said, his 4-3 team seeing its four-game Division I winning streak snapped. “Near misses.”

That’s often how unbeaten teams like Concord (7-0) stay unbeaten. After that first period ended scoreless, Guertin did take a 1-0 lead on a Noah Cordeiro unassisted shorthanded goal but the Tide responded with two, the first by Nolan Walsh, to take a 2-1 lead into the third period, which they dominated with three more.

“Walsh has a good snap shot, used a screen and ripped it,” Tide coach Duncan Walsh said. “Then we get the power play goal. We responded the way we wanted to respond, because they took it to us physically (in the first period).”

But then it changed. The Tide decided enough was enough, and that was evident by a rush right off the second period opening faceoff.

“They went after that net hard,” Bishop said. “They didn’t go after the goalie, they just went to the net hard. They got right next to him, and that’s how they got most of their goals.”

The Tide tied it 1-1 on a wrister by Walsh, assisted by Lukas Rondiak and Tyler Morin, five minutes after BG’s lone goal that came at 1:32. The Cardinal defense began to back in, and Walsh took advantage as he was wide open and beat BG goalie Connor Huges. (22 saves).

Then came a power play goal after a blocked shot deflected back to Concord’s Morin, who scored to make it 2-1 at 13:36.

“We didn’t shut them down the way we were supposed to,” Bishop said. “We were letting them bring the puck in. The first period we everything before they got in. The second we started backing up too much. … We can’t pack in like that.

“Then power play goal we blocked it, it ended up on their stick. If it ends up on our stick, it’s an icing.”

And in the third? “Dunc said it,” Bishop said. “‘The puck was just laying there and we put it in’.”

The Tide’s Austin Proulx, Morin, and Trevor Craigue all scored in the third as they were constantly buzzing around Hughes, BG unable to get any kind of offense going except for a brief flurry early in the period. Concord goalie Carter Heise had 14 of his 20 stops in the first period.

“We played good with a lead, frustrated them and just kept adding to it,” Walsh said. “It was good. We haven’t been out played like that in a period (the first), not this year.”

But they responded. “That’s what you want,” Walsh said. “Got to compete.”

The two teams will see each other again in two weeks at Concord’s Everett Arena.

“We’ll be fine,” Bishop said. “It’s all preparation for the playoffs. It’ll be a good test to see what we’ve done in those two weeks.”