Souhegan-Nashua's Anna Foley tries to disrupt Bishop Guertin's Carly Green, left, during Saturday's clash at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – A week ago, the Bishop Guertin High School girls hockey team had to postpone a game at Lebanon because half the team was sick.

But in their first game since on Saturday, the Cards gave the Souhegan-Nashua North-South Storm a queasy feeling.

Guertin played a near perfect first period with six goals, on its way to a 7-0 first win of the season.

“This was probably our best game together as a team,” Cards coach Phil DeVita said. “Everybody got to play, everybody was rooting each other on, we’ve been battling some sicknesses during the week but we all came together today and we skated BG hockey today.”

Let’s face it, the Cards are unfortunately a long way from their championship contender days of a few years ago, missing the tournament for the first time in recent memory last year and starting out this season 0-4, outscored by a combined 38-8. They have just 13 on the roster, but yesterday they got a five point game with a hat trick and two assists from sophomore Ari Piascik; and a six-point game by Haley Gagne (goal, five assists) plus three goals and an assist from senior Carly Green.

Halfway through the first period it was 4-0 and the Storm was on its way to a 2-5 mark.

“It was a learning experience,” Storm coach Shannon Paquette said. “We are going to put it in the past and look forward to our next stuff.

“I don’t know if it was a fluke, I don’t know if it was their mindset coming in, but it definitely wasn’t as competitive of a game or as hard as I wanted them to come back. Sometimes games happen like this. They were all excited to come into this game.”

But not as excited as the Cards were leaving it, as the cheers from the locker room echoed down the Conway hall. Haley Gagne also had a goal, while Grace Spengler added two assists.

“I knew they had it in them,” DeVita said. “We’ve had a tough schedule at the beginning. The girls took the week off, kind of got together over the Christmas break and said ‘We’ve done a lot of hard work, but we want to work harder.’ And they did, they worked harder with the girls that they had during the week and this is what we had to show for all their efforts.”

Up 6-0, the Cards took the skate off the gas in a scoreless second period, but it was also a better period for the Storm, as goalie Charlotte Dezotell (20 saves) and the rest of the team played more competitive hockey, which with a lot o new players is really the goal. They tested Guertin goalies Emily Powers and Mia Pearson but they also responded with 14 stops to earn the shutout.

“After first we kind of reset the locker room,” Paquette said. “I was happy they came back a little better. We switched up the lines to try and create more energy for the girls and we worked a bit. But I still think the second and the third wasn’t as great as we could have been.”

The Cards rely a lot on seniors like Green and Gagne (10 points combined), but also have developed a young scorer in Piascik.

“Ari was on the team last year as freshman, and if you watch her skate, she’s just a hard skater,” DeVita said. “Goes after everything and she’s relentless.”

It was such a tough first period for the Storm that time ran out on them after their best play, a Briley Landsteiner breakaway that had the puck go in off the post but time had just expired. She was literally racing against the clock.

“It was brutal that it was the buzzer and then the goalpost,” Paquette said. “We did what we did.”

Souhegan-Nashua goaltender Charlotte Dezotell makes a stop on BG’s Grace Spengler (2) while the Storm’s Briley Landsteiner tries to help out during Saturday’s game at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Green added a power play goal during a running time third period, and now the teams go their separate ways – the Storm heading to Keene on Wednesday looking to snap a three-game skid and the Cards with three games in the upcoming week, two vs. Bedford.

“We try to take it one game at a time, but I also tell them one shift at a time,” DeVita said. “If you don’t win the shift you come back and try a little harder. ….

“Teams change.This is a great group of girls…Today was great. It all came together.”