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‘‘I was just hoping that we would run it down and get into a shootout,” Haughey said of Churchill’s dominance in the overtime period. ‘‘I knew we would have a great chance if it went to a shootout. I knew we had some of the best breakaway players in the state.”

The regional championship earned B-CC (9-3-1) a place in this week’s eight-team MSHL Public School State Tournament, a place it likely would not have had without the regional title. Its unlikely run through the draw featured wins over three teams — No. 5 Sherwood (6-5-0), No. 1 Walter Johnson (8-1-1) and Churchill (9-3-1) — against whom it had gone 0-2-1 during the regular season.

But a 6-3 win over Sherwood in the quarterfinals set the stage for the big upset, 5-2 over previously unbeaten Walter Johnson in Thursday’s semifinals. In the other semi, Churchill topped second-seeded Wootton for the second time in less than a week, this one a 2-1 overtime thriller.

That set up the surprise final match up. Both teams were a little drained from emotional wins over their rivals the day before. The game was tied at two heading into the third period, when Churchill seemed to have more in reserve. Zach Greenwald’s second goal of the game gave the defending state champions a 3-2 lead with eight minutes to play.

That’s where things stood until just 41 seconds remained. B-CC pulled Haughey for a sixth skater and, after a Churchill icing, held the puck in the offensive zone. Freshman defenseman Philip Asberg worked it to senior Michael Montross in the corner. The team’s leading scorer threw it across the face of goal, where junior Ben Pounds was waiting on the back door to deflect it in.

‘‘We were just absolutely dead,” Pounds said. ‘‘As much as I thought we might pull it out, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to. We just worked it around and got it in front. ... I’d been trying to get there all game for that goal.”

Haughey then withstood the Churchill onslaught in overtime, setting up the shootout. Churchill goalie Griffin Farha stopped two B-CC shooters, but Montross and junior Michael Kunza scored. When Haughey made his fourth stop in as many tries, B-CC was the champion.

With its late-season performance, Churchill earned an at-large bid to the state tournament, and plays No. 1 Linganore in the first round Thursday. The champs were on the outside looking in until the wins over Wootton in the regular-season finale and regional semis.

‘‘Two months ago, we weren’t very good,” Churchill coach Ray McKenzie said. ‘‘We probably were not even a lock to make the playoffs. The way they’ve come around in the last two months has been astonishing, and I just couldn’t be any happier with them.”

B-CC could say the same. Led by Haughey and Montross, both standouts since they were freshmen, the team came into the season with high hopes. But things didn’t click until late in the year, when Montross, Pounds and Kunza joined together to make a dominating first line. Now the team is headed to states, seeded fourth again, to play No. 5 Severna Park Thursday.

‘‘We knew we had a lot of talent — great goalie, a lot of solid people,” Montross said. ‘‘Basically, it was just all a matter of getting the lines right. ...With a minute left [Friday], I’m not going to lie, I started to get worried. But we kind of knew in the back of our heads that we could do it.”

Walter Johnson, coming off its only loss of the season, also made the state field as the sixth seed and played No. 3 Glenelg Tuesday, too late to be included in this edition. With only four teams receiving at-large invitations, Wootton (8-2-1) was left out in the cold, its only two losses coming in the span of a week.

‘‘If I felt like we got screwed, I would be upset, but who of those three [Montgomery County] teams doesn’t deserve to go?” Wootton coach Dave Evans said. ‘‘Do I think we’re better than some of the teams from those other conferences? Yeah. But they just have to go on the records. ... I hope one of these teams from our region goes through and wins it.”