When is a bronze medal better than a silver?

One need not look a whole lot further than the St Charles College Cardinals boys hockey team to discover the answer.

In becoming the first SCC boys hockey team to earn an OFSSA medal since the 1993-1994 Cards finished second at the all-Ontario high-school championships, the 2024-2025 lads completed an improbable journey last week in Sudbury.

Improbable, in part, thanks to the fact that a pair of setbacks at the hands of the Korah Colts in the NOSSA playdowns, including a 2-1 double overtime loss in the final, would leave the local powerhouse settling for second place in their own region.

(for the record, the Korah Colts went 1-2 in pool play at OFSAA and did not advance to the quarter-final round)

Thankfully, for a team which dominated on a local front – 15-0 in regular season play with a goal differential of +81 (100GF – 19GA) – the disappointment of falling short on the northern front might ultimately have been a benefit.

“We went into NOSSA thinking we were going to win,” said forward Hayden Myre, one of a number of speedy attackers the Cardinals’ offense will feature in a very balanced approach to putting points on the board. “When we looked around the dressing room after the (NOSSA) final, you could tell that guys were hurt, upset.”

“We knew that we had to play better hockey (at OFSAA) and that’s exactly what we did,” Myre added. “All of the guys really locked in. It was time to get back to business and do our thing.”

A come-from-behind 3-2 win over the St James CHS Lions from Guelph followed by a 2-2 tie versus the St Paul CHS Patriots from Niagara Falls to open OFSAA play would give way to a pair of solid victories as St Charles closed off pool play with a big 5-1 triumph over the Essex DHS Red Raiders before eliminating the Patrick Fogarty SS Flames from Orillia, 5-2.

A semi-final loss to the St Joseph’s CHS Jaguars from Renfrew (5-2) would take some of the wind from the Cardinals’ sails, but not enough to deny the host team a medal that’s been a long time coming as St Charles blanked the St Theresa CSS Titans (Belleville) 2-0 to place third in a field of the top 16 in the province.

Some SCC teams of years gone by have featured more top-end talent, though few could boast the wide assortment of weapons of the current OFSAA bronze medallists. “There was no alpha dog on this team,” acknowledged St Charles coach Rob Zanatta. “There was just great depth.”

“We were three lines deep offensively and that depth was nice to have. In some ways, it made our job really easy as coaches because we didn’t have to shorten our bench at all.”

And it wasn’t simply the coaching staff that included Darren Michelutti, Ryan Liinimaa, Paul Michaud, Cooper Molyneaux and Shawn Pitfield that recognized the wide spectrum of talents with this group.

“We have such a deep team this year,” echoed Hayden Myre. “You can put anyone on the power play, anyone on the penalty kill and they’ll be good.”

Of course, when a team plays six OFSAA games and allows more than two goals against in only one outing, one can assume there is defensive buy-in right across the roster, one which ultimately can pay dividends at the other end of the rink.

“When we play as a five man unit in the defensive zone, we will get on pucks and have chances to get pucks out,” said Zanatta. “This team is fast. The idea is that once you get control of the puck, you have to breakout as a five man unit. Coming out of your own end properly is kind of how you start to get your offense going.”

Mind you, when the boys are averaging almost seven goals a game (in SDSSAA league play), taking that message to heart is not always a given. To their credit, the 2024-2025 Cardinals listened and implemented the game plan to near perfection.

“The big thing was our defensive zone,” acknowledged Myre. “We have good “D” and we have the goalies and all, but I think every time that we won against a good team, the defensive zone is where we did it.”

The reward, in the end, was not limited to the group of teens who worked so hard to achieve it.

“We knew that none of the coaches had a (OFSAA) medal and we wanted to be the team to do it,” Myre added. “We got them that medal.”

And one and all agree that OFSAA bronze trumps NOSSA silver, in this particular instance, every day of the week.

Rounding out the St Charles roster are: Liam Judd, Jackson Noble, Adam Urso, Karson Gouchie, Nolan Corriveau, Carter Danyluk, Keynan Kidd, Brady Boucher, Daniel Crossthwaite, Quinn Pigeau, Blake Cole, Will Wierzbicki, Andrew McLean, Cameron Seguin, Reegan Billard, Rowan McCann and Brody Mabbott.