On Monday, Dec. 19, 2005, the St. Mary's Hockey Team visited the Pediatrics Unit at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre. Each player brought two gifts for those children who would be staying in the hospital over the holidays. The players did their best to make the holidays. The players did their best to make the holidays brighter for the youngsters. One patient was particularly happy to see the hockey players as he had attended the Island game a few days before.

As defending champs, the Gaels played in the Philie Christmas Tournament during the vacation. In the first round, St. Mary's defeated La Salle 5-4, Holy Ghost 9-3 and Malverne 7-3. The semifinals against La Salle turned out to be the most exciting game of the season. La Salle led 2-1 with 11 seconds, when Nick Chiavetti scored to tie the game. This forced a sudden death overtime, which went scoreless turning into a shootout. Ryan Lazarus stood tall in the net and the Gaels won 4-3.

The finals pitted the Gaels against Gonzaga from Maryland. The score was 3-3 late in the third period when Greg Fosso scored the winning goal. The Gales still have to face some very powerful opponents before the States, such as Don Bosco from Jersey, Malverne from Pennsylvania and the Princeton Day School.