St. Mary's boys hockey drops close one to Weymouth
LYNN - In its quest to make the Super Eight for the first time in program history, St. Mary's came to Connery Rink on Saturday with a chance to make a big statement against Weymouth.The Wildcats were considered by most to be a lock for the 1A tournament when the pairings are announced this Saturday ... but it was the Spartans who breezed to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes last Saturday. Weymouth, though, showed its big game experience and fought back to take a 4-3 win thanks to a pair of third period goals from Trevor King.
"That is certainly one of the top three teams in Division 1 and my kids left everything they had out there," St. Mary's coach Mark Lee said. "That was a great high school hockey game between two great teams."
Having already faced the gauntlet of Malden Catholic on Monday and Springfield Cathedral on Wednesday, the Spartans didn't show any sign of exhaustion at the start as they took the play to Weymouth in the first period.
It didn't take long for St. Mary's to jump in front as sharp play around the net from Derek Stella resulted in his banging home a rebound at 4:07 for a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, the lead doubled off a faceoff in the Wildcats zone.
Bobby Mullins won the draw cleanly back to Cam Kennedy at the left point for a slap shot that sailed past a screened Brian Brady.
"I thought that we came out and played exactly how we wanted to in the first period," Lee said.
Late in the period, Brady made a play that seemed inconsequential at the time but it swung all the momentum to Weymouth when he stoned Mullins' shorthanded breakaway.
The Wildcats fed off that stop when the second period began as Tyler Piacentini banged in a King rebound at the 33 second mark to make it 2-1.
A little over three minutes later, the Wildcats got the equalizer as Donald Hesse couldn't handle Joe Nardone's shot cleanly and Paul O'Keefe banged in the rebound at the top of the crease.
Hesse's save on Riley Flanagan's bid late in the second period kept the game knotted at 2-2 heading to the third.
After being caught flatfooted in the second, the Spartans had their jump back in the final 15 minutes as they swarmed around the Wildcats zone. Midway through the third, the pressure paid off on a power play as Tom Braswell banked a Bucky Surette rebound off the back of Brady for a 3-2 lead with 6:33 remaining.
Just over a minute later, though, King took advantage of a breakdown in the Spartan defensive zone to net an unassisted goal and draw the Wildcats back even.
King then got the game-winner at 11:56 when his drive off a faceoff bounced off a St. Mary's skate and past Hesse.
The Spartans would swarm the Weymouth zone in the final moments, barely missing twice on point blank chances, but time ran out.
"We're confident that we can play at this level with these teams," Lee said. "I'm just proud of everyone in that dressing room."
