St. Mary’s girls top unbeaten season with state crown

ALLSTON – When it was all over – and Harvard’s Bright Hockey Center was almost emptied out – St. Mary’s tri-captain Caitlin Gottwald decided to do her Nancy Kerrigan impression.She attempted what could be best described as a triple lutz? and fell down in a heap.”That,” she said, laughing, “is why I don’t do figure skating.”Click here to see a photo gallery of the St. Mary?s girls championshipSuch was the celebration last night after the Spartans did what the New England Patriots couldn’t do by capping off a perfect season with a Division 1 state championship in a 7-1 rout over Wakefield.”That was borderline hilarious,” said her best friend, and fellow co-captain Abby Gauthier, whose spectacular third-period goal opened up the floodgates after a tight first period and a penalty-filled first 10 minutes of the second.Early into the second period, both Gauthier and the other co-captain, Christen Hart, got penalties at the exact same time. A few seconds later, Gottwald joined them.At the time, it was only 2-1, and Wakefield played more than two minutes with a two-man advantage, but couldn’t score.As soon as the sides were even, Hart brought the puck up left wing and rifled a perfect pass onto Gauthier’s stick. The Providence College-bound senior wove through two Wakefield defenders and hit nothing but net to make the score 3-1. Moments later, it was 4-1, and before the period ended the score was 5-1.”I was just coming out of the (box) when I heard the cheers. I asked, ‘did Abby score a goal?’ and they said yes.”I’m sure it was spectacular,” Gottwald said. “She’s spectacular.”In the third period, however, Gauthier got a scare when she went down in heap along the boards on the right side of the rink.As she struggled to get up, the St. Mary’s crowed shouted, “Abby? Abby ?””I’d never heard that before,” she said. “But at the time, I was having trouble breathing.”Sophomore Courtney Winters scored the hat trick to lead the Spartan offense, and fellow 10th-grader Courtney White scored two more. Gauthier and Bridget Mini had the others.As time wound down, coach Frank Pagliuca put all six seniors on the ice – including backup goalie Kayla Shinnick. The others were Gauthier, Hart, Gottwald, Mini and Sue Hennessey.”He told us we couldn’t score,” said Gauthier. “He said to just go out there and savor it.”I’m on a great high right now,” she added. “This is even better than when I was a freshman and we won, because I’m going out with a trophy.”The Spartans accomplished a few things besides winning the title. They presented their school with its first-ever Division 1 crown in any sport. They also went through the season with a 25-0 record. And, they became the first hockey team in the state to have an unbeaten season since Catholic Memorial did it in 1998.This title represents a bookend of sorts. Six of the seniors who represent the nucleus of the team were freshmen in 2005, when the Spartans – then a combination of St. Mary’s, Classical and English – captured the Division 2 championship.The year after that title, the Spartans did two things. First, they went solo, as Classical and English combined with two other teams to form their own combine. And second, they moved up to Division 1, under new coach Frank Pagliuca. In his first two years, the Spartans were frustrated by losses in the state semifinal, including a heartbreaking shootout defeat at the hands of Austin Prep last March.”This feels unbelievable,” said Gottwald. “We deserve this. We worked hard for it.”