Serino has MC on verge of ultimate glory

MALDEN – Back in the 1960s, there was a TV show called “Have Gun – Will Travel,” which followed the exploits of a gunfighter named Paladin, who traveled all over the Old West settling problems.For Malden Catholic head coach (and Saugus native) Chris Serino, a proper name for a TV show might be “Have Clipboard – Will Travel.”Serino has taken a program that was struggling when he first arrived and has turned it into a consistent winner in recent years.Two years ago, the Lancers reached the Division 1 North finals in his first season before losing to St. John’s. And now he has Malden Catholic on the precipice of its first trip to the Division 1A finals at the TD BankNorth Garden.But winning championships is nothing new for Serino, whose No. 5 was retired by Saugus High. Serino has won as head coach for the Sachems and Northfield-Mount Herman, as an assistant coach at New Hampshire, and as head man at Merrimack College before returning to the high school wars.”I really enjoyed my time at Saugus and I got to coach some of the best in the world at UNH and Merrimack,” Serino said. “I’ve probably coached 20 or 30 NHL players. I’ve been blessed to have great athletes play for me.”Being back at the high school level, where he also is the athletic director at MC, has given Serino a fresh start, something he is enjoying.”I probably should be on the golf course right now,” joked Serino. “But this is fun, it really is. I was at the college level for 20 years and to come back to high school has been refreshing. It’s a whole different lifestyle in getting to spend time with the family and having been able to watch my sons play.”One of those sons, Tony, is a member of the MC team this season. Serino had another son, Nick, on the team a year ago when the Lancers made the Super 8 but went 0-3 in pool play.Last year’s team won 13 games, the most in nearly 15 years for a Lancer squad, and made the Super 8 for the first time in program history, but was heavily hit by graduation. So the expectations weren’t terribly high for MC in a Catholic Conference race that had teams like Catholic Memorial, BC High and St. John’s Prep as favorites.”I knew it would be a tough year because we were so young,” Serino said. “But we’ve been a pretty good team and in the Super 8, we’ve been very consistent with our play.”The youthful Lancers haven’t played like a team without a ton of experience. MC started the year with four straight victories and added wins over the likes of Xaverian and Division 2 power Tewksbury during the regular season.”If you look at our season and all of the games we’ve played, there’s probably only one or two that were bad,” Serino said. “The big reason for that is my scorers have matured a bit and now are learning how to score.”The Division 1A selection committee seeded the Lancers sixth in the tournament and MC has gone to town since, beating St. John’s Prep in the opener and then outlasting Hingham in a shootout to effectively punch its ticket to the semis. Then, on Sunday, MC won its pool with a convincing 5-2 win over Xaverian, the other undefeated team on that side.One reason for that win was the Lancers’ depth of talent as MC constantly rotated three lines and six defensemen all game long. And that’s something that Serino is proud to be able to do, especially against such tough competition.”You have to have depth in your program in our league, and that depth factor is huge for us,” Serino said. “That’s what happened against Xaverian on Sunday even though we had played on Friday and they had (played) on Thursday.”Now the Lancers have one hurdle in their way of playing for a state championship. That hurdle, however, happens to be the king of the 1A tournament: Catholic Memorial.The Knights were practically unbeatable during the regular season, losing only once. But in the Super 8, CM has looked, well, human.The Knights needed two late goals to beat Waltham in the opener and then were shocked by Reading, 5-2, in the second round despite p