Loss in title game leaves MC’s Serino frustrated

BOSTON – Don’t tell Chris Serino that it’s OK ? or that his team is young ? or that there’s an excellent chance that Malden Catholic will be a player in the Division 1A high-school hockey tournament for years to come.Because as far as Serino is concerned, there is only today.The Lancers fell to Reading last night, 3-0, in the finals of the 1A tournament at the Boston Garden. So he had to sit there and watch as the Rockets became the first public-school team in the 17-year history of the tournament to take home the top prize.Even though he has the nucleus of a good team coming back next year, Serino, from Saugus, didn’t really see it that way.”We could be a better team next year,” he said. “But will we get here next year? Who knows?”A lot of things have to go right for you to get here,” he said. “And it’s not always the best team that does. Look at Catholic Memorial. They were undefeated during the regular season, but lost twice in the tournament.”It all comes down to how you’re playing when you get here,” said Serino, whose Lancers came into the tournament seeded sixth – one spot behind the No. 5 Rockets.But both teams caught fire once the round-robin tournament started. Neither lost a game, though the Lancers came close in Game 2 of the first round, allowing Hingham to tie the score late in the third period – and then surviving an overtime before winning in a shootout.Even in the crossover game, Reading won with ease over Xaverian (5-2) while MC had to scratch and claw to overcome a 2-0 deficit to defeat Catholic Memorial, 3-2.If anything, it looked as if the Lancers would keep the Catholic school winning streak going in the first period last night, skating rings around the much more experienced – and heavily favored – Rockets. The only problem? They did everything except score.It wasn’t for lack of trying. They peppered goalie Jeff Wyer with shots (12 overall in the period) but came away empty.Of course, after one particular flurry, Reading’s Pat Kiley (goal, 2 assists) came right down to the Lancer end, put a beautiful juke on MC defenseman Evan Yanovitch, and beat goalie John Carbonneau over his right shoulder, giving the Rockets a 1-0 lead.”That was the story of the whole game,” Serino said. “We couldn’t take advantage of our chances, and they did.”We haven’t scored a lot of goals this year, and that’s because we’re young,” he said. “You could see it. On the other hand, (Reading’s) big line ? when they get the puck, they expect to score.”But,” he said, “as good as they are, I didn’t expect a high-scoring game. Their defense is very good, and that goalie ? he’s very good. I knew it was going to be a long night after he made three or four saves right in a row. A goalie who does that is pretty tough to beat.”Kiley’s goal didn’t really dent Malden Catholic’s enthusiasm, but Rob Toczylowski’s first of the night did. It came early in the second period on a routine dump-in that just took a funny bounce off Carbonneau’s stick.”It shouldn’t have deflated us, but it did,” said Serino. “That took a lot of the air out of us.”After Toczylowski’s second goal, making it 3-0, the Lancers had a chance to get one back going into the locker room. But Wyer robbed MC’s Zack Sheppard blind on the doorstep, and it was probably MC’s last big chance.”I’m proud of what the kids did,” said Serino. “We never quit. Nobody expected us to be here, but that doesn’t mean that once we got here, that we didn’t expect to win.”A lot of people also expected a high-scoring game, especially with the Kiley-Toczylowski-Mike Lozzi line as prolific as it was all season.”Everybody overlooked the defense,” he said. “You look at them and not a whole lot of people scored against them.”I wasn’t expecting a high-scoring game,” he said. “I figured three goals would win it ? I just thought it would be us scoring them.”