St. Mary’s boys hockey regroups, upsets Malden Catholic

MALDEN – Program-defining wins don’t come around very often. For St. Mary’s, that defining moment came in 2002, when the Spartans upset defending state champion Danvers to win the Division 2 North championship in their first try.On Tuesday at Valley Forum II, the Spartans just might have topped that moment.Two days after losing to a winless Archbishop Williams team, the Spartans survived a first-period onslaught from Malden Catholic and then proceeded to score twice in the third period to upset the Lancers, 3-2.”You don’t beat a team like Malden Catholic unless every one of the guys gives everything they have,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “And every one of the players in that locker room left everything they had on the ice ? There was no quit in this team (Tuesday) and this gives us a great confidence boost.”The story of the game was the play in goal by St. Mary’s sophomore Frank McCormick, who made a plethora of spectacular saves – 37 in all – to help the Spartans to the win.”Frank was injured for the first half of the season and he’s really come a long way,” Lee said. “And to play in that way against a team like that was great.”At no time was McCormick better than in the first period, where he turned aside all 20 shots the Lancers put on him to keep the game scoreless and give St. Mary’s a chance to get the offense going.”Their goalie was fantastic,” MC coach Chris Serino said. “The first period was the game. We had plenty of chances and just couldn’t score.”If the first 15 minutes were any indication, it looked like MC was going to make it a long night for the Spartans as the Lancers completely dominated the play, holding a 20-1 shots on goal advantage.MC also had three straight power-play chances in the opening period, but the Spartans found a way to thwart the threat and get to the locker room in a scoreless tie.”Frankie kept us in the game in that first period,” Lee said. “And that gave us a chance to loosen up and get our opportunities.”The Spartans (10-6-2) did loosen up in the second period, but MC still was able to draw first blood when Tony Serino jammed home a loose puck by the right post at 4:35 to make it 1-0.From there on, however, St. Mary’s began to steadily put pressure on the Lancers and it resulted in MC making regular trips to the penalty box.The Lancers would be called for eight consecutive penalties in the final 8:36 of the second and the Spartans made them pay just past the midpoint of the period.With Christian Roberto off for tripping, John Baldwin found Zak Borowski in the right wing corner. The senior from Gloucester walked out of the corner and drilled his 12th goal of the season past Jon Carbonneau to tie the game.St. Mary’s would later have a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:12, but could not convert, keeping the game tied at 1-1 after two.”We self-destructed,” Serino said. “We didn’t get the job done and that’s the bottom line.”The Spartans opened the third with 1:55 of power play time but couldn’t get the go-ahead goal.MC used the penalty kill to gain some momentum, and took the lead at 3:37 when Jason Yeomelakis tipped Mike Carr’s shot from the blue line past McCormick.Any thoughts that the Spartans would not have an answer got erased just 2:56 later as a hustle play by a diving Corey Bartlett sent Corey Lee and Tommy Adams in on a 2-on-1.Lee faked a pass to Adams and crossed the slot before beating Carbonneau 5-hole to draw St. Mary’s even.”We took advantage of our opportunities when they came along,” Lee said.MC then made a fatal mistake 2:24 later when Carbonneau misplayed a puck behind his net.Baldwin picked up the loose puck and couldn’t jam it into an open net. But Borowski charged down the slot and wristed a shot into the vacated goal for a 3-2 lead.The Lancers pulled Carbonneau for an extra attacker in the final minute, but couldn’t get a shot on net, preserving the win for St. Mary’s.”There was no quit in this team. Everyone kept disciplined and kept working,” Lee said.