The St Charles College Cardinals girls broke the ice on the high-school hockey banner raising front, sweeping aside the Lo-Ellen Park Knights in back to back games and rewarded with the SDSSAA Division I pennant this past week.

A two-goal effort by Avery Mininni lifted the Cards to a 3-1 win on Monday afternoon and Thursday at the Gerry McCrory Sports Complex, St Charles completed the task at hand, posting a 3-0 win as Kloe Rienguette turned aside 17 shots in support of goals courtesy of Ryann Chevrier, Kahlan Judd and Alyssa Bryant.

As for the pre-game strategy, it sure looks like SCC had ticked off each and every one of the possible boxes. “We had to forecheck hard, make the good plays, make the good passes, always backcheck and not get down if they score first,” noted 16 year-old grade 11 forward Joely Angus, who rounded out the scoring for the Cardinals in game one.

“Getting pucks on the net, crashing the net and getting to those rebounds with your stick down was key; otherwise, it won’t happen.”

A two-year veteran of the Sudbury U18 AA Lady Wolves team, Angus believes there is an inherent benefit to the high-school hockey setting, especially at a school that runs an accredited hockey program that finds students taking to the ice several times a week.

“We all go to school together, so we’re already close,” she said. “The chemistry is already there, so we know where we are going to be on the ice.”

The Division II final is set to kickoff Monday in Walden as the Lively Hawks welcome the Champlain Requins to the T.M. Davies Community Centre.

On the boys side of the equation, the Lo-Ellen Park Knights will look to close out their series with St Charles and regain the crown they last held in 2019 when game four is played Saturday night in Garson. The Knights grabbed a 2-1 lead Wednesday night in Lively, blanking the perennial powerhouse 4-0 on goals by Max Jouppi, Noah Lafrance, Drake Taylor and Matthew Trottier and a 31-save effort between the pipes from William Ford.

Meanwhile, the Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes easily laid claim to the Division II banner thanks to consecutive 5-1 victories one night apart. Five different goal scorers hit the sheet in the series finale as Edison Joly, Christian Maillet, Leighton Pelletier, Bradon Schell and Ty Vagnini all turned the trick.