Austin Prep foils St. Mary’s boys hockey in opener

LYNN – The schedule-makers didn’t do the St. Mary’s hockey team a lot of favors in terms of the Spartans’ Catholic Central League opener on Wednesday at Connery Rink.St. Mary’s had the unenviable task of hosting defending champion and Super 8 semifinalist Austin Prep. And though the Cougars were hit by graduation, they showed they still possess some explosive weapons in a 4-0 win.”I was proud of how we worked,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We’re a team that’s going to get better as the season goes on.”The Spartans (1-1-0, 0-1 CCL) didn’t get off to a very auspicious beginning as Austin’s Cam Gaudet scored at the 1:00 mark with a wrist shot that picked the top right corner against Frank McCormick.The Cougars continued to pressure and doubled the lead at 4:27 when Brian Wright put his wrist shot under the crossbar to send Austin to the dressing room with a 2-0 lead.St. Mary’s got a little jump in its step at the start of the second period when Brendan Cummings was called for tripping at 2:52. But goaltender Robbie Pappagianopolus and the Cougar defense snuffed out that threat.McCormack also settled down nicely in the second, turning aside all seven shots he faced to keep the game 2-0 heading to the third period.Unfortunately for the Spartans, the third period began much like the first did.Steve Caruso increased the Austin Prep lead to 3-0 at 3:15 when he one-timed a Wright pass by McCormick. Just under two minutes later, the Cougars put a cap on things when Gaudet picked up his second of the night on the power play, assisted by Nick Tracia and Andrew Napolitano.”We got into penalty problems and we have to work on that,” Lee said. “It’s hard to start with a team like them but we hung in there and the kids didn’t quit.