Team effort leads St. Mary’s over Lynnfield

SAUGUS – It’s become one of the better rivalries on the North Shore in recent years, and whenever Lynnfield and St. Mary’s meet, it’s usually an entertaining affair.On Monday at Kasabuski Arena, the Spartans and Pioneers renewed acquaintances in the Division 2 semifinals of the Saugus Federal Credit Union Holiday Hockey Classic.Using a stifling defense that held Lynnfield to 11 shots on net and a pair of goals and an assist from George Carey, the Spartans advanced to tonight’s (6) championship game with Boston Latin thanks to a 5-1 win.The Pioneers (3-2-0) play Saugus this afternoon (2) in the consolation game.”There’s a nice little rivalry here between Lynnfield and St. Mary’s,” Spartans coach Mark Lee said. “Every time we play them, it’s a challenge, and we needed this win to get us back on the winning track.”On Monday, it was the more veteran team that took advantage of its opportunities. Lynnfield, meanwhile, ran into a tough defense and showed its youth a little bit.”We definitely showed our inexperience (Monday),” Lynnfield coach Vin Mirasolo said. “We need to learn as a team how to play at the level of the competition we’re playing against.”St. Mary’s (3-2-0) managed only 17 shots, but took advantage of its chances.After buzzing around the Lynnfield zone in the opening minutes, St. Mary’s took a 1-0 lead at the 7:23 mark when Andrew Bates finished off a 2-on-1 with Carey.That tandem would return to the scene near the end of the first as Bates fed a pass from the right wing corner to Carey in the high slot for a shot under the crossbar that made it 2-0, Spartans, after the first.It was more of the same in the second as the Spartans held a 7-1 shots advantage. Carey would up the gap to 3-0 at 6:41 when he took a Tom Braswell feed and converted on a partial breakaway.”(Lynnfield) threw a lot of different looks at us and it took us a while to get going,” Lee said. “But we played good defense and it set up opportunities for our offense.”The margin went to 4-0 midway through the third period on freshman defenseman Cam Kennedy’s goal. The Pioneers tried to make things interesting a minute later when John Lee bolted in on a shorthanded breakaway and beat Joe Grabau to make it 4-1.But Jon Baldwin’s goal at 10:42 of the third closed out the scoring.