MIAA Girls Hockey: Top-seeded St. Mary’s ready for second season

The reigning Division 1 girls hockey champion will be the No. 1 seed when the 26-team field begins play tonight.Winner of an astounding 47 consecutive games, St. Mary’s blazed its way through some of the top teams in Division 1 to finish the regular season 22-0-0 and earn a first-round bye in the tournament. The Spartans play the winner of Tuesday’s Billerica/Franklin game at Connery Rink on Thursday (7).”We are very excited for Thursday night,” St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca said. “We had a great regular season and did a lot of great things but everybody is back to the same record now.”With the loss of a pair of historic scorers in Abby Gauthier and Christen Hart, there were questions if the Spartans could keep on winning. Well, led by Courtney Winters, Courtney White and Erin McAndrews, the St. Mary’s offense has helped answer that question.The Spartans scored a division-high 138 goals during the regular season and allowed an astonishing 21 total in 22 games. They also beat teams like Hingham, Woburn and Wakefield, all of which are considered to be teams that can dethrone the champs.”We want to go out and play against quality opponents and test ourself against the mettle of the competition,” Pagliuca said. “It’s helped us grow and showed us what we had to work on.”Goaltender Kelsey Magrane has been outstanding again this season and a defense core led by Alex Smith, Michelle Macchione, Angela Dandreo and Jackie Desmond that had to replace two graduated seniors has matured as the season has progressed.”We lost two good defensemen from last year and we knew that we had some solid kids back,” Pagliuca said. “And they have helped bring the younger kids along.”A pleasant surprise is Lynn English, which won just two games a season ago. But under new coach Anthony Martucci, the Bulldogs enjoyed a comeback this season.English went 14-4-0 in the regular season, shared the North Cape League title with Masconomet and earned the right to host Shrewsbury tonight (6:10) at Larsen Arena in Winthrop in the opening round.Led by all-conference forward Vanessa Caruccio as well as fellow forwards Lindsay Barker and McKenzie Clark, the Bulldogs scored 91 goals this season. An even more impressive stat came on defense, where sixth-grade goalie Katie Burt and a defense led by all-stars Taylor Brown and Ashley Fiandaca surrendered only 22 goals in 18 games.Three other North Cape League teams will also look to find success in the tourney.Marblehead was a Division 2 semifinalist a season ago. This season, the Magicians were promoted to the Division 1 level and went 13-5-2, and just missed sharing the league title with English and Masco.The Magicians open Tuesday (5:30) at Salem State against Barnstable.The other two NCL teams, ironically, will meet in the opening round as Masco hosts Beverly at The Governors Academy in Byfield tonight (7:30).