Bishop Guertin's Jordan O'Hearn consoles teammate Noah Cordiero after Concord won the Division I title early in the fourth overtime on Saturday at Manchester's SNHU Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – In between each overtime period in Saturday’s Division I boys hockey championship as afternoon turned into evening at SNHU Arena, Bishop Guertin High School boys hockey coach Gary Bishop was telling his exhausted players to remember and savor the moment.

“Keep working,you’re going to be talking about this the rest of your life,” Bishop said. “Remember it; you’re going to be telling your grandchildren this story.”

The problem was, as Bishop noted, it’s a story without a happy ending. The No. 2, 17-4 Cardinals endured three overtimes and a couple of minutes of a fourth only to come out on the losing end of a 2-1 Concord victory.

And that’s after the Cards were just 33.1 seconds away from capturing the program’s seventh state title in regulation, leading 1-0. Concord’s Cam Roy tied the game with that little time left on the clock, 1-1, with Tide freshman goaltender Carter Heise pulled. Nearly two hours later Rowan Arndt scored the title winner at 1:29 of the fourth overtime.

Incredible. It’s believed to be the longest NHIAA hockey game in modern history.

“They all worked hard,” Bishop said. “We had a couple of kids cramp up in the fourth overtime and could barely move. Get the Gatorade in you, get the water in you. They gave it everything they had.

“It’s a tough one. Hey, nothing you can do. No one deserved to lose that game.”

“Their kid (BG goalie Luke Bettencourt) played great,” Concord coach Duncan Walsh said. “Rowan just snapped it off and it just trickled through., … Hey, somebody was going to score sooner or later and I’m just happy it was us.”

Bettencourt had a whopping 64 saves.

“Everything he could do he did, he stood on his head,” Bishop said. “It’s too bad we had to lose it. … We had a number of chances and couldn’t find the back of the net.

“He made 60-something saves, a couple of great ones in overtime. Hey, he kept us in it all the way, he did his share. I’ve seen some pretty good ones, but that was a good night for him. He’s had a great season. That was his first loss in New Hampshire. He’s done all right for himself.”

It looked like the Cards, up 1-0, would end the game with about 45 seconds left with an empty net goal but the shot was blocked by the Tide, who then got the puck down the ice with a 2-on-1 break, Chad Lariviere and Cam Chandonnet assisting to set up Roy’s tying goal.

“At that point, we were pushing too much for that, worried about (getting) the goal,” Bishop said. “Get the puck in the corner deep…No one got tied up with the kid down in front of the net. Two of them were laying on the ice at the other end when the goal scored.”

Bishop wanted the clock to tick off. Instead, the Cards got caught short on the other end and Roy as able to beat Bettencourt when the puck got deflected to him and the goalie was at the other end of the crease. Ouch.

But the drama continued. In the first overtime, with BG just ending a power play and putting pressure on Heise, who appeared to smother a puck before it crossed the goal line at 6:39 of the first OT. But the goal judge turned the light on, and suddenly BG players thought they had won the game. The game officials conferred, then talked with the goal judge, and while fans and players alike held their collective breath, it was ruled no goal.

“Couldn’t see it from my angle,” Bishop said. “But the fact that none of our kids celebrated, that tells you something.”

Oh but there’s more. The Cards had another power play in the third overtime, and sophomore Ryan Mogielnicki looked like he had won the game with a blast from inside the blue line – except the puc k clanked off the crossbar.

Ouch. Heise survived, and finished with 45 saves.

Concord’s Cam Roy (8) is about to score the game-tying goal with 33.1 seconds left against BG goalie Luke Bettencourt, sending Saturday’s Division I finals to a classic three-plus overtime finish at Manchester’s SNHU Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Concord’s Cam Roy (8) is about to score the game-tying goal with 33.1 seconds left against BG goalie Luke Bettencourt, sending Saturday’s Division I finals to a classic three-plus overtime finish at Manchester’s SNHU Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“Their top guys didn’t do much, our top guys didn’t do much, everybody shut everybody down,” Bishop said. “There weren’t many real good bids.”

“I said in between the second and the third, and the third and the fourth overtimes, I just told the guys, ‘Look, there’s really no strategy here,'” Walsh said. “Get pucks out, get pucks deep, throw everything to the net, and somebody’s going to get a lucky bounce.”

It had to be excruciating for the Cards, who had grabbed a 1-0 lead on a Noah Cordiero goal at 5:21 of the third, assisted by Jordan Delude with the pass out to the middle and Mike Ponto.

“It’s all game,” BG captain James Mantone said, his line often out there every other shift during the extra sessions. “It sucks to lose. We were conditioned enough. Not the right outcome.”

Does Bishop want to play them again tomorrow?

“Love to,” he said. “This is the game you want to play, this is what you play for, to play games like this.”

While hoping for a better outcome. A classic that will be remembered for years in a couple of different ways.