The St Charles College Cardinals boys hockey team did not bring their "A" game to Carmichael Arena on Monday afternoon, taking to the ice for the first time since the Christmas break.
Thankfully for the long-time SDSSAA powerhouse, they didn't need to.
The Cards were up 4-0 before the midway point of period one and while there were more defensive lapses than the team would have liked, their prowess on the attack was enough to allow St Charles to double the Lively Hawks 8-4, improving to 10-1-0 on the year.
Brady Holden came through with a three-goal effort, Karson Gouchie added a pair and Harrison Markiewicz, Jackson Noble and Vincent Gilbert all chipped in with one marker apiece.
Alex Campbell, Brayden Gerrior, Cameron McIntosh and Josh Ruppel countered in a losing cause for the Hawks, with Lively seeing their current unbeaten streak snapped at three games as they battle it out with both the St Benedict Bears and the Horizon Aigles for the fourth and final playoff in the Division "A" ranks.
As for St Charles, they definitely did at least enough well to pick up the victory in a less than perfect performance. "It was a good offensive game but a couple of the boys weren't going like they usually do - but that happens to everyone," said Holden, improving his output to 17 points in 11 games this year.
"We have to be better on the defensive side," he added. "Our coaches say that you win championships on defense, so that's what we're trying to focus on most right now."
A 16 year-old grade 11 student at St Charles, Holden is suiting up with the Cards for the first time this year, having played in all three local rep hockey associations at the "A" and "AA" levels in the past.
And like most who transition to the high-school ranks, the early encounters can be a bit of an eye-opener.
"It's surprisingly faster than I expected," said Holden. "I had to adjust to that the first couple of games, but once we got the hang of it, now we're buzzing."
The Hawks lost a point to each of their closest adversaries as Horizon and St Benedict played to a 4-4 tie Monday evening at Carmichael, with Lucas Coufal pulling the Bears even late after St Ben's surrendered a 3-0 lead midway through this contest.
Coufal finished the game with a pair of goals to his credit, an output that was matched by teammate Dawson Kolodinski while Russell Ranger (2), Alexandre Mathieu and Caleb Larose replied for the Aigles.
The remaining matchup on Monday saw the Lockerby Vikings secure sole posession of second place in Division "B", defeating the Lasalle Lancers 5-3 as Masa Innis drilled home the hat trick.
Tomas Corsi and Mac Young capped off the scoring for Lockerby with Kamren Weicker (2) and Ryan Weiss doing their best to keep the Lancers in the game.
