The season had been most impressive with St. Mary's winning 38 games, the Phillie and Toronto Tournaments and beating Portledge twice, Millbrook, and Brunswick. The Gael skaters knew that only a state championship would be the climax of the season.

The first game had the Gaels against John Jay High School. The 11-5 St. Mary's victory was a much better game than the score reflected. The second game had St. Mary's playing Smithtown. The Smithtown goalie, Drue Santora, kept the Bulldogs in the game and kept St. Mary's scoreless for most of the first period, but the Gaels finally came through with a 7-1 win.

The next team was Lancaster High School from Buffalo. Gael goalie Rob Phelan was great in net, but the rest of the team was off to a sluggish start with penalties controlling the first period. But after Mike Collette scored a short-handed goal, the team settled down. Dimitri Soukhanov scored a hat-trick and the team's 4-1 victory gave the Gaels the top seed in the semi-final round.

The semi-final game was never in doubt as the Gaels scored three first period goals. The Gaels outshot West Seneca High School 19-2 in the first period. This victory assured a berth in the final game.

St. Mary's faced Lancaster for a second time in the state finals. St. Mary's was going for a sixth state title and Lancaster was gunning for a big upset. The Gaels controlled the early part of the first period with Ruslan Khasanchin opening the scoring at 6:04 with a rocket to the upper corner that knocked the water bottle off the net. Lancaster then turned up their play and outworked St. Mary's for the next 20 minutes. With Lancaster leading 2-1, Joe Leone's wrist shot found its way to the back of the net to tie the game 2-2. Lancaster then took the lead 3-2, but Brian Mitchell tied the game 3-3 on an assist from Billy Murray. Lancaster once again took a 4-3 lead at the end of the second period.

Captain Brian Mitchell showed tremendous leadership in the locker room and the attitude carried onto the ice. At the 7:32 mark, Khasanchin tied the game 4-4 with an unassisted goal. With seven minutes left in the game, the Gaels received a five-minute major penalty. With 54 seconds left in the penalty, Lancaster scored giving them 5-4 lead. With 1:20 left in the game, Brian Dobler tied the game with a corner shot. The Gaels had come from behind three times and regulation time ended with a 5-5 tie setting up a sudden death overtime. The Gaels took a penalty 2:58 into the overtime. On the next face-off the puck was cleared out of the Gaels' zone and Soukhanov cut in from the right side and took a shot which the Lancaster goalie stopped, but Khasanchin crashed the net and stuffed the win and the red light announced a five minute celebration by the Gaels.