LYNN – One of the pains that comes with having a young hockey team is the fact that penalties sometimes can become a problem. Entering Saturday’s game against Austin Prep, St. Mary’s had committed 79 penalties in 15 games.And unfortunately for the Spartans, penalties would be their big downfall against the Cougars as Austin scored all four of its goals on the power play to help insure its second place spot in the Catholic Central League’s Large division with a 4-2 win at Connery Rink.”I was very disappointed with the lack of discipline we had,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said.”We put ourself in the box too much and against a team like Austin, they are going to make you pay.”Austin (7-5-2) actually started the game as the ones taking the penalties. But they were able to dodge some bullets and when St. Mary’s began making regular trips to the box, the Cougars were ready to take full advantage of the chances.”We must have worked on our power play for an hour in practice the other day,” AP coach Lou Finocchiaro said. “And I think it worked.”We were able to finish and that’s the sign of a good team.”The Cougars controlled the play territorially in the first period, outshooting St. Mary’s by a 7-5 count, but had nothing to show for it thanks to the goaltending of Donald Hesse.At the other end of the rink, St. Mary’s failed to convert on a pair of power play chances and it looked like the first was going to end in a scoreless tie until Jon Baldwin scored his 10th goal of the season, assisted by George Carey and Nick Rogers, with 1:07 left to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead heading to the first intermission.”We really had held the advantage in terms of play in their zone and we ended up down 1-0,” Finocchiaro said. “But I like the way we responded after that.”Austin came out flying to begin the second period, putting the Spartans (8-6-1) back on their heels for the first time in the game.The pressure eventually resulted in an interference minor on Spartan defenseman Casey Goll at 2:48.The Cougars didn’t waste a lot of time in converting as defenseman Aaron Titcomb blasted a shot from the right point that grazed off the inside of the left post and past Hesse to tie the game at 1-1.A little over four minutes later, the Spartans again found themselves a man down when Brian Gauthier was sent off for tripping at 7:21.This time it took only 19 seconds for Austin to take the lead as freshman Brendan Silk one-timed a Casey Miller pass by Hesse.”We had a game plan coming in and we didn’t execute it,” Lee said.The Spartans got a power play chance of their own following Silk’s goal but failed to convert and headed to the second intermission down by a goal.Desperately in need of a boost, St. Mary’s got it early in the third.Julian Yourawski was the recipient of a big hit in the neutral zone but he was able to help start a chance by getting a pass to George Carey at the Austin line.Carey then found Andrew Bates for his team leading 11th goal of the season at 1:21 to tie the game at 2-2.Any momentum that St. Mary’s might have gained on Bates goal disappeared just 1:02 later when Kyle Martin was called for holding. Brian Wright then gave the Cougars back the lead for good at the 3:00 mark when he blasted a shot from the left point past Hesse.”We could have folded when they tied it but we didn’t quit,” Finocchiaro said.The Cougar defense took over from there, holding St. Mary’s to six shots in the third.After killing a penalty to Wright midway through the third, Austin put the game away with 23 seconds left when the aforementioned Wright scored an empty-net goal on the power play for the 4-2 final.