Lee, St. Mary’s boys hockey frustrated in semifinals

NORTH BILLERICA – For veteran St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee, Wednesday’s Division 1 North semifinal matchup with Wakefield was a chance to earn win No. 300 of his career.To get it, he would have to beat a team that had upset Waltham to reach the semis.Well, the Warriors weren’t quite ready to be a note in the history book.Two late first-period goals broke a 1-1 tie as the Warriors rattled off five unanswered goals to take a 9-5 win and earn a trip to Sunday’s final.”It seemed like every mistake we made went in the net,” Lee said. “We paid for our mistakes.”Despite having over 40 shots on goal, the Spartans simply couldn’t put home a goal when they needed it.”We had so many great opportunities to score. It seemed like we’d carry the play and then they would come down and score,” Lee said. “That simply was the difference.”Things nearly got off to an auspicious beginning for the Spartans as Andrew Bates rang a slap shot off the post behind Wakefield goalie Chris Czarnota off the opening face-off.The Warriors would be the ones to strike first, though.Moments after Czarnota robbed George Carey in close, Drew Prouse, a thorn in St. Mary’s side all night, snapped a Derek Crocker pass through Donald Hesse to make it 1-0 at the 5:50 mark.Just under four minutes later, the Spartans drew even when Nick Rogers’ wraparound attempt hit a skate in front and slipped past Czarnota.Wakefield would go back in front with a pair late in the first. Garrett White took a Brett Riley pass in the slot and beat Hesse stick side at 12:05.Even more damaging would be John Sartell’s shot from the point that went through traffic and in with 28 seconds left for a 3-1 lead.”We had so many great chances in the first. We should have been up a couple,” Lee said.Wakefield kept on flying at the start of the second as Prowse got his second of the game 57 seconds in.Charles Boniface made it four unanswered goals at 2:02 before Crocker upped the lead to 6-1 27 seconds later.The Spartans would have nearly three minutes of power play time midway through the second. But Czarnota made an astounding nine saves, many of them on the doorstep, to prevent St. Mary’s from chipping away.James Perkins gave the Spartans a bit of life when he scored with 4:27 left to make it 6-2. Prowse, however, completed his hat trick 22 seconds later to restore the five-goal margin.Kyle Martin scored with 1:03 left to cut the gap back to four and give the Spartans a lift.Tommy Braswell had a chance to keep the momentum going at the start of the third but Czarnota stopped his breakaway bid.James Beaton officially ended the competitive phase of the game when he scored just after a power play to make it 8-3 with 9:28 to go.Jon Baldwin and J.J. Losco exchanged goals before Martin got his second to close things.”I am so proud of the captains and seniors for helping bring this young team together,” Lee said.