Two late strikes help Winthrop defeat St. Mary’s

WINTHROP – It was all the St. Mary’s hockey team could have asked for on Monday at Larsen Arena.Playing without six starters due to suspensions and illness, the Spartans were in a 0-0 deadlock for 42-plus minutes with once-beaten Winthrop. The Vikings, though, found a way to push two goals home in the final 2:54 of the game to take a 2-0 win and clinch a state tournament berth.”It’s tough to let up a couple of goals like that late in the game,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We put ourselves in position to get one or two points out of this game, so it’s tough to come out with none.”Forced to throw many of their younger players into the fire against one of the top programs in Division 2 North, the Spartans more than held their own most of the way. In fact, with any luck at all, St. Mary’s might have won the game but Viking goalie Steve Waites pitched his third straight shutout in place of Pat Feeley.”We played good enough to win and just didn’t finish any opportunities,” Lee said. “And Winthrop did. That was the difference in the game.”St. Mary’s (7-6-0) had a 7-6 shots on goal advantage in the first period but the Winthrop defense stood strong and Waites came up with two 10-bell saves on Mike Restuccia and Tommy Braswell in the final seconds of the period to keep the game scoreless.”There were a couple of times on the bench where I yelled because I thought we had scored,” Lee said.The Spartans continued to control the play at the start of the second period, putting the first six shots of the middle frame on net. But Waites was there to turn every one aside.Eventually the Vikings (10-1-1) got their second wind and turned the tide. Only some brilliant work by Donald Hesse at the other end of the rink kept the game scoreless after two periods.”This was one of those games where coming in we knew it was going to be a one- or two-goal game,” Lee said.Less than a minute into the third, Hesse made his best stop of the game, robbing Nick Clewer’s bid from the high slot.It would not be the last time the Vikings threatened as they dominated the play for most of the third.The Spartans, though, were able to hold Winthrop at bay until Clewer and his cousin Bobby Clewer were able to convert.Taking advantage of a loose puck at the Winthrop line, Nick Clewer’s initial bid was stopped but the puck trickled behind Hesse and was tapped home by Bobby Clewer with 3:54 to go.”That was a tough one,” Lee said. “I don’t know how it wound up behind him like that. I guess it must have just trickled through. I thought he had it.”Moments later, Nikko Markham was called for tripping to put Winthrop on the power play with 3:01 left. The Vikes capitalized quickly as Chris LeBlanc took Brendan Fitzpatrick’s headman pass and beat Hesse with 2:11 left to seal the win.”I was happy to see how a lot of our young kids stepped up and played against a team that’s at the top of their league,” Lee said. “They showed that they can play at this level.”