The Bishop Guertin boys hockey team celebrates its 11-2 rout of Exeter in Wednesday night's Division I semifinals at Manchester's JFK Coliseum. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – They’re hitting a new level, one perhaps even Bishop Guertin High School boys hockey coach Gary Bishop didn’t expect.

“It took all year to do it, but we finally put it together,” he said of Guertin’s offensive firepower thanks to the re-working of its top three lines. “We’re getting goals from all four lines. You’re still getting goals from the third and fourth lines, and that’s huge when you can throw a third or fourth line out there and not give up a goal.”

Oh, the No. 2, 17-3 Cards have put it together all right, as shown by their dominant 11-2 Division I semifinal win over No. 6 Exeter Wednesday night at JFK Coliseum.

Exeter High School boys hockey coach Paul DiMarino put everything in proper perspective.

“I love my team,” he said afterward. “But, it’s the best two teams playing on Saturday.”

Yes, the win by the No. 2 Cardinals – their 13th straight – pits them in the finals against No.1 Concord, which beat Hanover 3-1 in the other semi and was the last team to beat BG back on Jan.18.

The Cardinals literally scored from start to finish in one of their most dominant postseason performances in recent years. It started with the first of two James Mantone goals at 2:11 of the first period, and ended with the second of two Sean Schultz goals at 14:15 of the third. Guertin simply skated, shot, scored. Rinse and repeat.

“We played this same goalie (Exeter’s Trent Fujitani) when we only beat him 2-1, and he stood on his head,” Guertin coach Gary Bishop said. “So we said ‘Don’t get cute, you get anywhere near the front of the net, just shoot.”

Guertin led 2-0 after one period; just 27 seconds after Mantone’s first goal, Jordan O’Hearn fired a hard wrister past Fujitani (20 saves).

Mantone’s second goal made it 3-0 just 3:08 into the second, assisted for the second time by Jordan Delude. But Exeter’s Joe Crowe slipped one past BG goalie Luke Bettencourt (24 stops) during a fierce frenzy in front of the net (Callum Howarth assist) at 6:35 to make it 3-1 and the 11-8-1 Blue Hawks had life.

But that life lasted just over a minute, as Guertin’s Cam Auger fired a blast from the right point that deflected off an Exeter stick into the net for a 4-1 lead at 7:46. And another minute later Delude scored, assisted by Conor Hayes, and BG was in control at 5-1.

“That was tough,” DiMarino said. “We scored to make it 3-1, we had some life and energy, and then a shot from the point hit one of our own kids’ sticks and went in. That crushes a little. You get some momentum and an unfortunate bounce like that, but it’s part of the game, it happens. You try to recover from it but what, another minute later they got their fifth one? That’s hard to come back from.”

It was 6-1 heading into the the third.

Callum Howarth assisted on Crowe’s first goal, and Crowe got another at 1:58 of the third assisted by Chase Barbour. That made it 6-2 but then the Cards, skating four lines, just kept skating and shooting. Besides the two goals each by Mantone, Schultz and O’Hearn and Auger’s back-breaker, Guertin got goals by Conor Hayes, Cam Vaillancourt, Braydn MacLean and Delude. Delude led BG with three assists for a four-point night, while sophomore Ryan Mogielnicki had a pair. Jack Stone, Tyler Tesak and Hayes also had assists.

“I like the team a lot,” Bishop said. “I don’t like it when they get ahead and start being individualistic. The name of the game is pass the puck and that opens so much up when you pass the puck.”

And now the Cards are back in the finals, having last been there just two years ago when they beat Bedford in overtime for the title.

“The key is getting there,” Bishop said. “The kids, good for them. They’ve worked hard to get there.”