Bow's Jacob St. Pierre (23) loses the puck in front of BG goalie Luke Bettencourt thanks to Cards' defenseman Gavin Santos during Saturday's Division I quarterfinal at Skate 3 Arena in Tyngsborough, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – Often tournament matchups of teams who faced each other will be far different from their regular season encounter.

Then again, maybe not.

Certainly not in the case of No. 2 Bishop Guertin’s 6-0 win over No. 10 Bow in the Division I boys hockey quarterfinals on Saturday at Skate 3 Arena.

The Cards had handled Bow 5-0 just a couple of weeks ago, and after a tough week of practice, didn’t come in overconfident at all, putting up three in the first period and that was basically that. The win was BG’s 12th straight.

This was a far cry from 2024 for the 16-3 Cards, who were flat in this round a year ago against Hanover here and were eliminated. Now they’re back in the semis, set to face No. 6 Exeter, which beat No. 3 Keene yesterday 3-1, on Wednesday night at Manchester’s JFK Coliseum.

It’s what they’re used to.

“I hated having that week off, I’ve always hated it,” Cards coach Gary Bishop said. “We worked hard all week long and actually gave them Monday off … You’re sick of hitting your own teammates. … You need to play playoff hockey, and it’s a huge difference. They came out flying.”

“They’re a physical team, that’s how they play,” Bow coach Tim Walsh said, his Falcons, who upset Windham in the prelims, done at “But I’m really proud of how our guys competed today, right to the very end.

“I don’t think we played that bad. The score was 6-0 but I don’t think it was as bad as the scoreboard says. Just the way the game goes sometimes.”

Again, Guertin just came out and attacked from the start. Braydyn MacLean opened the scoring at 3:59, assisted by Jack Stone and Cam Vaillancort. Then two goals two minutes apart in the latter part of the period sealed the deal. The first was by Jordan Delude (unassisted), and the second by Mike Ponto, assisted by James Mantone and Sean Hughes.

“First period, they came out smoking,” Bishop said. “They were moving their feet, everyone was skating, everyone was bumping. They played the game the way they should have in the first period.”

The biggest goal of the game may have been by Jordan O’Hearn, assisted by Ryan Mogielnicki, coming just 2:07 into the second. It gave BG a 4-0 lead, and some cushion when the Falcons put a mini flurry on BG netminder Luke Bettencourt (18 saves) midway through the period. Had the Falcons scored, well….

“It’s a different game,” Walsh said. “I think the biggest thing is, if we do get one there, how do they react? I told the kids, ‘Get one, and it’s a game again.'”

And the pressure was on, but it didn’t happen, and the Cards got at goal at 8:02 when Jack Stone shot one through traffic from the point that found the back of the net to make it 5-0. As Walsh said, “That was just deflating.”

Luca Ferrari got the assist. Guertin’s Cam Miller finished the scoring at 10:29 of the third on a rebound goal with Bow netminder Kian O’Leary off to the side during a scramble, assisted by Sean Schultz and Mike Ponto. O’Leary came in for an injured Riley Fitzgerald midway through the second.

Six goals, six different goal scorers. It’s been Guertin’s way all season long.

“The sixth goal came from a fourth line kid,” Bishop said. “That’s good, I want that to happen.”

And just about everything Bishop has wanted to happen has for this team over the last two months.