Neither do any of his teammates as the Spartans prepare to take on St. Louis U. High in the Mid-States Club Hockey Association Challenge Cup championship game at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Centene Community Ice Center.

“To go back again and play SLUH, we definitely have some unfinished business with them,” Govero said. “To get the opportunity again is huge, especially with this group, because we’re not going to give it up this time.”

SLUH beat De Smet 3-1 in last year’s championship to claim the school’s fourth state title.

De Smet’s seniors have used the sting from that loss as motivation for the past 12 months. Getting back to the championship was always the goal. Getting another shot at the Jr. Billikens makes it sweeter.

“I think its honestly everything for us,” senior forward Nicholas Salthouse said. “I think everyone knows they’ve kind of had us the last three years and this year it’s just been a different story and we’re just ready to take it to them in the finals.”

Salthouse’s observation is spot on.

SLUH had gone 19-1-2 against De Smet from 2016 to last year’s championship game, but the Spartans have beaten the Jr. Billikens all three times this season.

It’s hard to beat a team, let alone a defending state champion, four times in a season, but that’s the task if De Smet is to bring home the school’s 15th championship and first since 2010.

De Smet (20-7-2) entered the Challenge Cup as the No. 3 seed, while SLUH (17-5-5) entered as No. 4.

“You trust this group and the seniors and the whole team in general,” De Smet coach Casey Ott said. “The players, they drive it and they are taking ownership of it. And that has been the message all year and now you’re in the playoffs and game by game they slowly get more and more of that ownership and they kind of see what they’re capable of.”

If any team is up to the challenge of beating the defending state champ for the fourth time, it is this De Smet team.

The Spartans didn’t take the easy road to the title game, losing in the semifinals to Kirkwood and getting placed in the double elimination bracket. That meant they would need to win three elimination games in three straight nights to play their way back to the championship game.

That quest began with a 4-2 win over Marquette on Thursday and a 2-0 win over Chaminade on Friday. De Smet punched its ticket with a 1-0 overtime win over Kirkwood.

The players wear their penchant for overcoming adversity as a badge of honor.

“It means everything,” senior defenseman Thomas Ruder said. “We’re a confident group and that just made us more confident.”

Winning three straight elimination games is something that has never been done in league history as Mid-States implemented the new double elimination bracket for the Challenge Cup this season.

“You kind of just kind of bear down,” Salthouse said. “At the end of the night, the adrenaline just takes over and everything you’ve done previous just becomes second nature.”

Taking the hard road is something familiar to De Smet, which had to beat CBC in game 2 of their semifinal series last year before advancing on penalty shots under the old playoff format.

Just as he did last season, Govero raised his game throughout the playoffs.

The senior netminder has a .966 save percentage, stopping 56 of 58 shots he faced, in the three-game stretch, including all 46 shots faces in the last two games. Govero hasn’t allowed a goal in the last 62 minutes, 27 seconds of game-time with the majority of that time played in high-pressure and close game situations.

“Brady was unreal,” Ott said. “He made saves that bailed us out, saves them calmed it down. He’s the composed guy back there that keeps the engine running.”

Govero likes that the Spartans are battled-tested. He said going through the CBC experience last year helped him through the three-game gauntlet.

“That’s the kind of team we are,” Govero said. “You look back at last year, we had our backs against the wall and we did the same this year. But obviously, this team grinded and we just got better and better with every game we played.”

De Smet has gotten postseason contributions from the entire roster. Salthouse and Ruder have combined for 19 points (4 goals, 15 assists) and Mitch Geiser has 3 goals and an assist, including the game-winner against Kirkwood.

“It started Thursday, it was a three-game set, and I think the group came together more and more with each game,” Ott said. “This whole season has been about the players and they’ve just bought in to playing for one another, keeping everything positive and sitting with the goal in mind to get back to next Friday.”

Ott said he trusted his players to make good decisions regarding their bodies and rest during the three-game stretch.

He said the team will rest a bit to get its legs back under them and then its sole focus is preparing for SLUH.

“It’s a resilient group,” Ott said. “It’s led by the seniors and the freshmen follow their lead and you’re seeing it now that merging of classes, just pushing and facing all the adversity and coming through it.”

Ruder believes the Spartans are ready to give SLUH their best shot.

“We’ve been here,” Ruder said. “We know what the expectation is. We know how we have to play. We’re ready. Everyone from coaches to the players, they built us up for this moment and they built us up for state this Friday, so we’re ready to go.”