Spartans save best for last against St. Bernard’s

LYNN – For 30 minutes on Saturday at Connery Rink, the St. Mary’s hockey team looked like a team that is still going through growing pains. The final 15 minutes, however, showed how dominant the Spartans could be with game experience.Outshooting St. Bernard’s 14-3 in the final period, the Spartans broke open a 3-2 game and moved to 3-0 with a 5-2 win over the Bernardians.”We were a little undisciplined (Saturday) and we have to work on that, but I was proud of the way we finished,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said.Lee’s analysis of the night was spot-on as the Spartans were tagged for nine penalties, giving St. Bernard’s eight power play opportunities. But the Bernardians were able to capitalize on only one of those chances thanks to a stout St. Mary’s defense.”We certainly got a lot of work on that (Saturday),” Lee said about his penalty killers. “But I like the way that our defense played.”St. Mary’s got an early chance to strike as Tyler Fors was called for roughing at the 1:39 mark of the first. But it was St. Bernard’s who nearly scored first as it took a sterling glove save from Donald Hesse to stuff C.J. Holman’s scoring chance.Later in the first, the Bernardians went on their first power play of the night when Tim Aylward was called for interference at 6:35. Just over a minute later, Ryan Oldfield finished off a Holman centering pass for a 1-0 lead.Half a minute later, the Spartans drew even thanks to slick work around the net. Bobby Mullins went to the goal and was able to deposit a Nikko Markham rebound past Simon Jasmin to deadlock the game at 1-all.After killing off two more St. Bernard’s power plays, the Spartans would go into the first intermission in front when Tommy Braswell fired a Derek Stella rebound through Jasmin’s legs for a 2-1 lead.Less than a minute into the second, the Spartans added an insurance goal when James Perkins took a Stella pass and beat Jasmin on a breakaway to make it 3-1.That would be the only real offensive chance the Spartans had as they were forced to kill three more penalties in the middle frame, dodging a huge bullet in the final moments when Fors shanked a shot with a wide-open net in front of him.”We are a young team that still has a lot of work to do,” Lee said.After playing with fire for most of the second period, St. Mary’s was finally burned early in the third when Fors made a slick feed in front for an Anthony LaPierre one-timer that cut the Spartan lead to a goal.After that, though, the Spartans assumed complete control of the game.St. Bernard’s would manage only one more shot on goal in the game as the Spartans swarmed around Jasmin’s net constantly. Finally, with 4:49 to go, Perkins made the pressure pay off when he banged home a rebound to make it 4-2.Brendan Mageary closed out the scoring with 1:33 to go when he fired home a Mullins pass from behind the goal.