Bishop Guertin's Dom Trepanier, left, and Gavin Santos show off their Division I title hardware at SNHU Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – When the Bishop Guertin High School boys hockey team beat Concord 1-0 in sudden death overtime on Saturday night, it may have been one of the most satisfying titles for the Cards under longtime head coach Gary Bishop.

That’s not only because it avenged last year’s three-plus OT loss to the same Crimson Tide, but also because if truth were told, Bishop and his staff didn’t exactly to be back here when the season began.

“We had 10 freshmen and sophomores,” Bishop said. “And a freshman and sophomore goaltender. Neither one of them was here last year. One (Nico Scaparotti) transferred over from Central Catholic and he was like the seventh goalie over there. He came over here and he beat everybody. Who knew that was going to happen. Who knew Auger and Menicci were going to have a great sophomore year? There’s your two young defensemen, but both played regularly as freshman last year, and they came out this year and played big for us.

Owen Murphy, who played on our JVs last year, he had nine or 10 goals this year and he missed four or five games with a broken wrist. Guys like him all of a sudden surfaced. The little freshman, No. 4, Anthony Dobrutchi. Tiny but extremely skilled.”

And had a point-blank shot robbed by Heise in the third period.

SCAPAROTTI’S JOURNEY

How did he ultimately make the decision to go to Guertin? The Pelham resident was friends with senior defenseman Zach Chandonnet.

“He said ‘We have no goalies next year, you want to come and play?’,” Scaparotti said. “And I said ‘Of course.’ And he said, ‘Concord’s gonna be our rival, we have to get them. ‘ And when it came to the championship game, I’m not letting them beat us.”

THE DEFENSIVE KEY

How was BG’s defense so tenacious on Saturday?

“That’s where that ‘Bad Cop’ comes in,” Bishop said, referring to longtime assistant Mark Mantone, who Bishop has joked plays bad cop to his good cop. “He runs the ‘D’. He runs the D until I see something I don’t like and say ‘Get him outta there.’

“But no, that ‘bad cop’ routine, he holds them accountable. He holds them accountable in practice all day.”

MENICCI’S TITLE PEDIGREE

If you want to win a hockey championship at BG, just have a Menicci on the team.

Jack Menicci was one of the key defensemen for the Cards, just a sophomore. His sister, Grace, is a lacrosse player at Plymouth State but was a key player on not one, but two BG girls hocke title teams, in 2022 and 2023. And then there’s the one that started it all, their father, Tom Menicci, who played on BG’s first ever title team in 1987 and went on to a college career at Saint Anselm and then played 10 years professionally in the minor leagues – the ECHL, WCHL, WPHL and UHL – as a defenseman. Incredible.

NEXT YEAR

Bishop said after Saturday’s game he’d like to return for another season but would talk things over with his wife. He’s got a good reason to return, because a lot of his players are.

“You have 10 freshmen and sophomores, and all six defensemen coming back,” Bishop said. “We’re not losing a defenseman. And the goalies are a freshman and a sophomore. We lose a lot of firepower up front, but we’ll figure that out.”

THE FINAL PUSH

O’Hearn said the effort had to be more than they’d done all year.

“In the locker room we all told ourselves we work 100 percent,” he said. “We do that extra stride, that extra hit, just give it all you’ve got, and we’ll come out with a win.”

And O’Hearn didn’t mind giving up his offensive game.

“Not at all,” he said. “We have talent on this team, we have shooters, so I know we can get the job done offensively. Defense comes first. Defense wins championships.”

It certainly did this year for BG.