MANCHESTER – Two minutes into overtime, Belmont-Gilford senior forward Evan Guerin picked the puck up in the neutral zone and had a touch of magic in his stick that he used to move seamlessly through Kingswood’s defense and around his back as he rounded the left-side face-off circle and approached the goal with speed. As he approached, the crowd went quiet for a second, and Guerin sent a powerful shot into the top of the net. Then the crowd erupted.

Guerin’s goal lifted No. 4 Belmont-Gilford (14-4-2) to the Division III boys’ hockey championship with a 3-2 overtime victory over No. 2 Kingswood (15-3-1) at SNHU Arena on Saturday.

“Brayden (Mercier) got open, he had the puck. I just pushed out to the far side, he gave me it, and all I knew was we needed to do something here. They were gassed, we were gassed, had to end someway, so took him outside, threw my legs and game over,” Guerin said.

The Bulldogs needed some late heroics and completed the comeback after trailing by a goal in the second period to win its second upset of the tournament.

“I just told these guys that it was time, that I thought those guys were pretty gassed. Their (defense) kept trying to rush the puck. I thought that was maybe a little bit of a mistake on their part, and maybe they should have hung back a little bit and rested, but we took advantage of that, and here we are,” Belmont-Gilford head coach Jason Parent said.

Belmont-Gilford opened the scoring in the first period with a goal by sophomore forward Max Ryder, assisted by senior defenseman Nate Gerbig, but was unable to find a goal for most of regulation. The Knights came out in the second period with energy and slowly swung the momentum pendulum in their favor with strong defense. 

Kingswood’s offense turned it up in the second period and quickly scored two goals with less than six minutes remaining. The first came from junior forward James Rogers and the second was a combination play as senior forward Jackson O’Keefe passed it to his younger brother, sophomore forward Myles O'Keefe.

In the third, Ryder scored his second goal of the night, assisted by Guerin and sophomore forward Jaxen Lien, with 37 seconds left in regulation. His game-tying shot from the left side completely re-energized Belmont-Gilford going into overtime. 

Senior goalie Carson McGreevy was also clutch in the win, amassing over 20 saves, and his praises were sung loudly by his coach.

“They outshot us pretty heavy last time we played them. But we’ve got the best goalie in our division, maybe one of the best goalies in the state. So we knew he was going to keep us in the game,” Parent said.

Belmont-Gilford achieved its second title win in the past four years, after losing in the final in 2022 before winning it all in 2023. This year’s title caps a huge comeback season for the Bulldogs, who went out early after getting upset in the quarterfinals last season. Parent credited his coaching staff for helping to create an environment and team culture that attracts quality players that have played in three championship games in the last four seasons.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com