BY MATT STOUT
The Bishop Guertin hockey team was a haunted bunch.
Shouldering the expectations to win a Division I state title after a second consecutive 15-1 regular season, the Cardinals were well aware of their past – three straight quarterfinal exits – and how a run to the state championship could change all that. But, Cardinals coach Gary Bishop said, it wasn’t just about getting there.
“This year, from the beginning, our goal was to win,” he said. “We weren’t going to be happy just being there. We wanted to win it. The difference between a good season and a great season is this victory.”
Chalk this up as a great season.
Behind 21 saves from senior goalie and Windham native Taylor Wood and two first-period scores, including one from Salem native Zach Bradanick, the Cardinals exorcised their playoff demons on Sunday, March 11, beating Bishop Brady, 2-1, in the Division I title game in front of more than 1,500 fans at the Verizon Wireless Arena.
The top-seeded Cardinals, finishing 23-1 overall and 18-1 against New Hampshire opponents, scored twice in the first 6:46 of the game before settling in defensively in the final p eriod to hold off Brady.
The Giants scored their lone goal 1:30 into the second period and controlled play throughout the final two frames,
outshooting Guertin, 18-10, in the span and nearly tying it 4:47 into the third when Chris Hickey’s shot snuck past Wood and off the post.
But, with Brady’s goalie pulled for an extra skater, Guertin to capture its first state crown since 2001 and third this decade. As importantly, it helped erase the memory from last year’s quarterfinal loss to Berlin, perhaps the most painful of Guertin’s early round losses in recent years.
“That game haunted us this year,” said Wood, who earned Division I Player of the Year honors but will play baseball, not hockey, at Cornell University . “This was a good way to go out for hockey.”
It was sweet redemption for Wood especially, who in years past has watched opposing goalies spell the end of the Guertin’s season. This year, however, it was he who ultimately stole it from No. 2 Brady.
“It’s different,” Bishop said. “We always have had a pretty good goalie, but I think this year he was the difference. He didn’t have to make a ton of saves (on Sunday), but when he had to, he made them.”
Helping matters was Bradanick, a first-team all-state defenseman who led all Division I blueliners in scoring during the regular season with 23 points.
Playing up into the Brady zone early in the first period, Bradanick picked up the puck left by teammate and Salem Saints product Zach Musgrave, slid through the left faceoff circle and wristed a low, hard shot past Giants goalie Tyler Ingerson for a 1-0 lead.
A period later, the BG junior saved a potential score, diving across his own blue line to pull back a pass, foiling a sure Brady breakaway with 1:10 left in the second frame.
“He anchors the team,” said Brady coach Clint Edinger of Bradanick.
It’s a team, no doubt, that just finished a great season.