The St Charles College Cardinals pulled a page from the playbook of the Lo-Ellen Park Knights Tuesday night in the NOSSA final at McClelland Arena in Copper Cliff.

They just didn’t wait until the very last minute to do so.

Having twice seen Lo-Ellen force overtime with game-tying goals in the final ten seconds of play over the course of an incredible five game city final series these past two weeks, the Cards knew full well that a 1-0 deficit at the hands of the St Mary’s Knights (Sault Ste Marie), heading to the third period of play, could be overcome.

But thanks to some doors opened by their opponents, the St Charles push would come mid-period as three power play goals in a span of less than two minutes created the separation that SCC needed, capturing their first NOSSA banner since 2019 thanks to a 4-1 win over St Mary’s.

A Daniel Guzzo first period tally, also on the power-play, stood as the only goal of the game until Jacob Hayes, Jaden Shawana and Brady Boucher all found the back of the net in short order as the Knights more than doubled their visits to the sin-bin in the third period alone.

Zackary Lepage would seal the victory with an empty-net marker as the Cardinals found a way to ramp things up, emotionally, following a very draining affair to decide SDSSAA bragging rights last week.

“That was a hard fought series (with Lo-Ellen), but we had the weekend off,” noted defenseman Jaden Shawana, the 17 year old playing his first and only year of high-school hockey who came up time and time again with goals at the most opportune times of post-season play. “We were short a few players (with injuries), but the boys came together, fought together and pulled off city champs and NOSSA champs.”

Ironically, the decision to join the Cardinals school team this year was sparked in part on his desire to add another level to his game after suiting up with rep teams in Copper Cliff, Sudbury and Nickel City over the course of his minor hockey career.

“I think it was good for me; it helped me develop as a player, to focus on my skills,” said Shawana, the smooth-skating blueliner who lit the lamp in each one of the first three games of the city final. “I wanted to try and get better at rushing the puck and not stay at home so much.”

“Last year, I thought I sat back and let the team do everything,” he continued. “I wanted to step up this year and involve myself more offensively.”

Part of which came as a trigger man on the point on the SCC PP unit as the Cardinals scored a couple of goals with the man advantage with shots through traffic from distance. “The forwards trusted me more, were passing it back to me more,” said Shawana. “As I shot, I started scoring more goals and that gave them even more opportunities to get it back to me.”

“And they were doing really well screening the goalie in front of the net.”

Game MVP honours would go to Daniel Guzzo (St Mary’s) and SCC goaltender Joe Gouchie while teammate Tyler Thibodeau was selected as tournament MVP.

St Charles and St Mary’s will be make their way to Brooklin, site of the OFSAA Boys and Girls Hockey Championships, with both participating in the A/AA event (thanks to a silver medal performance by the Knights last year), with the Chippewa Raiders from North Bay also there to represent NOSSA at the AAA tournament.

From a local perspective, both the Bishop Alexander Carter Gators and the St Charles College Cardinals girls’ hockey teams will also be on hand in Brooklin, the pair working their way through to the NOSSA final at Centennial Arena this week that mirrored the results of one year age.

Where the 2022-2023 season would see the Gators claim their first even Division I city banner only to fall to the Cardinals in the NOSSA final, the tables were turned this time around. The Gators scored three goals with the man advantage Tuesday to defeat the Cards 5-2 as Jillian Landry and Reese Williamson scored two goals each for the winners.

Addison Gibbs added a solo strike while Avery Minnini and Katelynn Jacques answered in a losing cause for St Charles.

Named as a captain this year in her final season at BAC, soon-to-be 18 year old Mackenzie Purvis stressed that holding the emotions in check was key for her team, with at least a few players on both of these squads guilty at times of needlessly over-aggressive play.

“You don’t want to be on the bad side of the refs,” stressed Purvis. “Whatever you’re doing, whether you’re retaliating, whether you’re talking back, it’s not going to do you any good or do any good for the team – and I try and think of the team first.”

A lifelong hockey player who has split her time between the houseleague ranks and a few campaigns with the Sudbury Lady Wolves had no issue understanding why the coaches might look to her to don the “C”.

“Definitely my leadership – I find that I have a good voice for the team,” said Purvis. “I am very level-headed, all-around. I really don’t do stuff on the ice that I shouldn’t be doing. I am always a positive player, for sure.”

The NOSSA girls hockey tournament was about as wild as any that has been seen to date, with three games going to overtime, three teams finishing tied for first place with six points (SCC and BAC moved on by virtue of goal differential) and the local entries dealing constantly with somewhat makeshift lineups.

“Playing St Charles is always a challenge and the girls know that,” said Purvis. “For sure, we wanted to get shots on net. It sucks that their main goalie (Amber Rancourt) was not there for NOSSA (committed to a school trip to Costa Rica several months ago), but you’ve got to take advantage of that.”

“They would have, if it had gone the other way.”