Baldwin’s OT goal propels Spartans past Matignon

SALEM – There was a measure of comfort for the St. Mary’s hockey team on Wednesday at Rockett Arena as it faced Catholic Central League rival Matignon in the opening round of the Division 1 North tourney for the second straight season.On the other hand, there was the knowledge that the Spartans were facing a goalie in Kyle Harring who was fully capable of thwarting them. And he nearly did.The 11th-seeded Spartans thoroughly dominated the No. 6 seed for 45 minutes but still found themselves in overtime thanks to Harring’s stellar play. But St. Mary’s stuck to its guns and senior Jon Baldwin finished off a George Carey pass 2:10 into the extra session to give the Spartans a 2-1 win and a Saturday date with No. 14 Medford in the quarterfinals. The Mustangs upset Woburn in a shootout to advance.”I felt like we carried the play for most of the game but (Harring) was as good as we knew he was,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “I’ve seen it over the years where a hot goaltender steals games ? The guys never stopped working and played three solid periods.”After the two teams played through a cautious first period that ended in a scoreless tie, the Spartans (10-8-3) threw caution to the wind and began to dominate the play.Carey and Baldwin both had 10-bell chances in the early going but Harring came up with spectacular stops on both. But the Spartans kept with it and just short of the midpoint of the contest, Baldwin and company finally found a dent in Harring’s armor.Taking a pass from Casey Goll in the neutral zone, Baldwin skated into the Matignon end and snapped a shot through Harring’s legs to give St. Mary’s the lead at 7:13.That lead, however, lasted all of 67 seconds as Matignon’s Shane Toomey picked up a rebound at the top of the left circle and snapped a shot past Donald Hesse to tie the game at 1-1.And there it stayed into the third, where the two teams both put six shots on goal, but Hesse and Harring were able to stop all the pucks and send the teams into overtime still deadlocked.”This game really scared us,” Lee said. “Matignon is one of the most improved programs in the state.”Matignon got the first chance in overtime when Toomey found the game on his stick in the slot, but he shot over the goal. Moments later, the Spartans didn’t miss on their chance to end things.Andrew Bates lugged the puck into the neutral zone before dropping a pass back to Carey. Carey took the puck wide and then slid a perfect pass across to Baldwin in the left circle for a one-touch shot through an adjusting Harring at 2:10.”It could have been frustrating because of the way things were going and they weren’t going in,” Lee said. “But I think the thing that kept them in check was the offense they were generating and holding the edge that we did.”