By Reece Bastien – Contributor

After a dominating regular season and finishing 2nd in the national rankings, the Bishop’s University club hockey team shifted its focus to the AAU national championship in Jacksonville, Florida. The team flew from Montréal-Trudeau International Airport early Monday morning on March 17th, and landed in Orlando, Florida before driving a couple hours north to Jacksonville. After narrowly missing out on the quarter-finals last year, the team was ready to prove themselves on the national stage. Out of the 20 teams invited to the national championship, 8 teams move on to the quarter-finals. These 8 teams are the 5 teams that won their pool, and the next 3 best teams.

This year’s tournament took place at the Community First Igloo Rink. Bishop’s was set to face off against the Florida Atlantic University Owls, Massachusetts Maritime Academy Buccaneers, and Suny Brockport Golden Eagles. The first game took place on Tuesday, March 18 against the #20 ranked FAU Owls. Though the team was initially supposed to play against Georgia Institute of Technology Yellow Jackets, a late tournament forfeit from the University of Richmond reshaped the pools and gave Bishop’s a new and exciting opponent to play.

 Ready for the 8pm puck drop, the Bishop’s team came out strong and were quickly rewarded with a beautiful goal from Frédéric Grenon, set up by Nico Deichmann and Alex Budd at 11:52 in the first period. The team further extended their 1-0 lead in the second period, with Marc Lagacé quickly scoring on an assist by Fred Nicolas and Cody Morton. Later in the period, rookie defenseman Nathan Gagnon made it a 3-0 game after redirecting a shot from the point by Lucas Thorne. Joseph Aubert also picked up an apple on the play. The guys took the 3-0 lead into the third period. After FAU closed the gap and made it 3-1, Ryan Gudernatsch potted one assisted by Jack Mcgowan to make it a 4-1 game. This would end up being the final score. Antimmes Leudiere stopped 15 of the 16 shots he faced while the Bishop’s team peppered the opposing goalie, officially recording 41 shots on net. In the win, Jack Mcgowan was given the player of the game, finishing the game with an assist and many bone-crushing hits.

The second game of the tournament took place against the division rivals in the #12 Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Bishop’s has already played MMA 3 times this season where the games ended 7-0, 6-1, and 7-2 all in favour of your Bishop’s University team. Coming off of a crushing overtime loss at the hands of Suny Brockport, MMA was looking for its first win of the tournament. Nico Deichmann and Joseph Aubert set up Fred Grenon on a beautiful passing play and quickly silenced the opposing bench with a goal 3:32 into the first. Jack Mcgowan scored with a cannon from the point later in the first period to double the lead going into the second period. Fred Nicolas opened the score in the second period with a power-play goal assisted by Joseph Aubert and Marc Lagacé. After a late goal from MMA, the Bishop’s team took a 3-1 lead to the third period. Will Côté opened the score in the third with an unassisted short-side snipe off the rush 1:53 minutes into the third period. The team did not stop there as they would go on to score three more goals to come out with an impressive 7-1 victory. Fred Grenon, Ryan Gudernatsch, and Fred Nicolas (PP goal) would score the final three goals for the team. Alex Budd, Harris Ruttan, Fred Grenon, Marc Lagacé, Joseph Aubert, and Cody Morton would all be credited with assists on the goals. Similar to the first game, the Bishop’s  team peppered the opposing goaltender with an astounding 65 shots. Jack Macfarland had himself a game stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced. This time it was Fred Grenon’s turn to get the player of the game with his impressive 2 goal and 3 point night which helped the team secure the win.

The #2 ranked Bishop’s takes on the #9 ranked Suny Brockport Golden Eagles. This was an important game for both teams as both teams entered the game with a record of two wins and zero losses. Whoever wins the game will be the team to move on to the quarter-final round. Suny Brockport were the first to get on the board coming out of the first period with a 3-0 lead. Eager to change the narrative, the Bishop’s University team came out flying at the start of the second period. Two minutes and 15 seconds into the second period, Suny Brockport goaltender took a 5 minute major penalty for spearing and got kicked out of the game, forcing the Golden Eagles to send in their other goalie. To make matters worse for them, Suny Brockport would take two more penalties within a minute, including a 5 minute major. Taking advantage of the Golden Eagles’ lack of discipline, Fred Nicolas scores an unassisted goal on the power-play to make it a two goal game. Still on the same power-play, Alex Budd, Cody Morton and Fred Grenon would score three more goals to make it a 4-3 hockey game for the Bishop’s team. Jack Knox and Ryan Gudernatsch add to the tally and make it a 6-3 game. After a goal from the Golden Eagles to bring the game back into their reach, Bishop’s University’s Alex Budd completes the hat-trick, scoring twice to make it a 8-4 game. In the dying seconds of the period, Marc Lagacé found the back of the net to close off the chaotic period which saw the Bishop’s team completely flip the script and score an unbelievable 9 goals. Heading into the third period full of confidence, all that was left was for the Bishop’s team to put the game away. After getting into some penalty trouble and giving up two goals, Sandro Lapierta called game and scored a power-play goal to give Bishop’s a 10-6 lead. Antimmes Leudiere stopped 24/30 shots to help secure the win for the team. All 10 of Bishop’s goals were scored on the man advantage. The win secured a spot in the quarter-finals for the Canadian team where they would face off against the #7 ranked team in Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders, who are coming off an upset win against the #4 team Anna Maria College Amcats.

The quarter-final matchup took place between the #2 ranked Bishop’s University and the #7 Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders. Although the Bishop’s team came out strong, it was the Blue Raiders who got on the board first with a late period goal from the point. The second period was all Middle Tennessee as they would score 4 unanswered goals, one being on the power-play. Fred Nicolas and Cody Morton would each score a goal in the third period to make it a 5-2 game. Though the Bishop’s team made a late game push to try and even the score, it wasn’t enough to move on to the semi-finals of the national championship in Jacksonville.

Though the outcome of the tournament was not what the team was expecting, the 2024/2025 season saw the team make tremendous progress for a second year in a row. Stay tuned for more BU Club Hockey in the future!