St. Mary's boys hockey holds off Austin Prep
TEWKSBURY - Though it might be only the midpoint of the season, Thursday's game for the St. Mary's hockey team against Austin Prep had a lot of importance.Coming in, the two teams sat atop the Catholic Central League/Large standings as the Spartans were the lone unbeaten team in league play. When they left Breakaway Ice Center, it was still that way.
Putting on a defensive clinic for 45 minutes, the Spartans held Austin to only 14 shots on net and used goals from Derek Stella, Bobby Mullins and Jordan Manthorne to best the Cougars, 3-0, and take a firm hold on first in the CCL.
"This was a big game for this point in the season," St. Mary's coach Mark Lee said. "And it was the first time all year that we played three complete periods of hockey. I am proud of the guys in our dressing room. They deserve this win."
It was a very un-Austin-like effort from the Cougars on Thursday as they were held to only four shots on goal in the first period and had only one in the first 10 minutes of the middle period. Afterwards, coach Lou Finocchiaro was quite honest with his thoughts on his team's effort.
"I can accept that maybe we don't have the skill level we've had in the past years but what I can't accept is not doing all the things that we talk about and work on in practice," Finocchiaro said. "It seemed like my guys were on their own agenda (Thursday). But take nothing away from St. Mary's. They absolutely deserved to win this game."
The tone was set on the game's first shift when AP defenseman Ryley MacEachern was called for an interference penalty. St. Mary's (4-1-3, 3-0-3) wouldn't score on that power play or another one later in the first but would break the ice just after the second power play ended.
