2024-2025 Bishop Carter Hockey: a Season to Remember

By SDSSAA Puck

When it comes to hockey, success for Bishop Carter has not come easy—or at all, really. With the school having been founded relatively recently in 2002, they do not have the history that a school like St. Charles has. And although the girls program has seen tremendous success, the boys only have one title to their name: the 2008 second division. They have seen their fair share of stars come and go such as 2013 MVP Josh Harkins, 2019 goalie of the year Dylan Fedorowicz, and 2020 league-leading scorer Blake Cornthwaite, but not much team success within that span.

After COVID temporarily halted hockey, it appears the team hit rock bottom. They posted an abysmal 0-12-0 record in the 2021-2022 season, conceding 89 goals and only scoring 22. They followed it up with a relatively successful 5-13-2 record the following season, but the 2023-2024 season again saw them sit dead last in the league with a 0-12-2 record.

However, it was abundantly clear that this season would be much different.

One thing about the 23-24 team was that they were young, with all of the core made up of juniors and sophomores. This means that not only did the team lose almost no players, but the ones they already had grew into stronger and more mature players over the course of the summer. Combined with new head coaches Nick Brouillard and Nick Rivais, the 24-25 team was essentially the same team as last season, but a little older and a lot better.

Week one was not great for the Gators as they dropped their first two games to St. Benedict and St. Charles. However, week two was when they put themselves on notice. They started by manhandling the rival Lockerby Vikings 8-2 and then obliterating the lowly Lasalle Lancers 11-2, with five points coming from breakout star Shawn Huzij. This is when other teams began to realize that this was a new team. Gone were the days of being in the dumpster of the league—these guys came to play.

The Gators finished the first half of the season with a 4-6-0 record, just one win out of a spot in the first division but enough to put them first in the second division. They won their first game against Lasalle 5-1, but went on to tie the Champlain Requins 2-2 and lose to Lockerby 5-4 in their next two games, putting them at risk of losing the first seed heading into the playoffs. Their final regular-season game was against the Lively Hawks, with the winner clinching the first seed. Despite being outshot 43-20, Bishop came out with a 3-2 win thanks to a two-goal performance from senior Jack Landry and a 41-save performance from former AAA star goalie Ethan Philippe, arguably the team’s best asset. Their final regular-season record was 6-7-1.

The Gators’ success was not just limited to league play. They had gone on a slew of tournaments during the season, including one in Ottawa where they took home a silver medal. However, just before playoffs, they decided to go to one more in Vaughan: the Canlan All Canadian Classic. There, Bishop dominated the competition all the way to a gold medal. Not only was it a monumental win for the program, but it gave them the confidence they needed just in time for a title run.

Their semifinal matchup was against Champlain, a team they had struggled with earlier in the season. Game one was a back-and-forth affair that came down to the wire; the Gators managed to pull away with a 5-4 victory. The next game was the complete opposite, with the Gators dominating play from start to finish for a 6-1 win, sweeping the series 2-0 and advancing to the finals.

Meeting the Gators in the finals was Lively, who had just finished having their way with Lockerby. Game one turned into an offensive explosion that saw both teams trading blows until Bishop emerged victorious 7-6 in overtime. The winner was scored by captain Lucas Lessard, arguably the heart and soul of that Bishop team. He had been on the team since that dismal 21-22 season when he was a freshman, and now he found himself a senior leading his team on a title run. He would end up with four points that night, and joining him on the scoresheet almost as frequently was Reegan Purvis. The two had grown up teammates with the Onaping Falls Huskies house league team along with Huzij, Landry, and Connor Therrien, all of whom were the top scorers on the Gators. The chemistry they acquired from the Huskies translated perfectly into high school and is a big reason why the Gators had as much success as they did.

Game two was the opposite of game one. Only Therrien could find the back of the net as Hawks goalie Jacob Bradley outdueled Philippe to take the game 2-1, setting up a monumental game three. The first two periods of the decider went without a goal. Then, early in the third, a Hawks hooking call put the Gators on the man advantage, where Isaac Jeanveau buried one. Jeanveau is a senior assistant captain on the team with a past in AA hockey, playing only his second year with the Gators.

“I didn’t get to spend the full four years with this team but the two that I did play with them had been my favorite,” remarked Jeanneau. “My first year at Bishop was tough, but the following year we got new coaches and it all started to click. We all became family in the locker room.”

The Hawks responded just 90 seconds later when defenceman Ayden Turgeon took an interference call, allowing Lively captain Ian MacDonald to bury his own power-play marker. Six minutes after that, Turgeon took another interference penalty, and the Hawks capitalized again courtesy of Seth Lagadin. Things looked bleak for the Gators until around the two-minute mark, when Tyson Koper tipped a Dmitri Lavallee point shot past netminder Tyler Parenteau to tie the game at 2-2. The game would head to overtime, where the next goal would decide the championship. Just 14 seconds in, Purvis finished a cross-ice pass from Huzij and fired it past Parenteau, securing the Gators their second-ever SDSSAA hockey title. Purvis ended up with 6 goals in 5 playoff games and was named playoff MVP.

So the question now is this: Are the Gators truly on the rise, or was this season just a one-hit wonder? Although they will lose five key seniors—Lessard, Landry, Jeanneau, Cody Osawamick, and Avery Recollet—the junior core headlined by Purvis, Huzij, Turgeon, Koper, and Philippe will be sure to carry their legacy into the following season. On top of that, a new class of prospects, led by AA talent Xander Strojny, will join the team. For the 2025-2026 season, some might scoff at the idea of the Gators contending again, but no one should be surprised if they remain a real threat for years to come.