WOBURN – And the wins just keep on coming.The St. Mary’s girls hockey team won its 13th straight to start the season Wednesday, defeating Woburn, 4-0, at O’Brien Rink.The Spartans have now won 64 straight games since last losing, in 2007, to Austin Prep in the Division 1 state semifinal. And they face perhaps their biggest test to end that streak Saturday (7:40) at Hingham.It may well be that the Spartans had at least one eye tuned into that game because, as coach Frank Pagliuca said, things didn’t go 100 percent swimmingly in this one.”It was one of those games,” he said, “where we just couldn’t get any flow going. We did some good things offensively, and we were all right in the neutral zone, but we made some poor decisions in the defensive zone that led to a few good chances for them. We’ll have to play better Saturday if we’re going to beat Hingham down there.”The teams have already played once, at Connery Rink, Jan. 15, with the Spartans coming out on top, 3-1.”It was a pretty good game,” said Pagliuca. “It really could have gone either way.”Pagliuca – like most coaches – prefers to play with a lead, and that’s what the Spartans gave themselves Wednesday. First-period goals by Sabrina Ianetti (assisted by Angela Dandreo and Courtney White) and Michelle Macchione (from Erin McAndrews and White) gave St. Mary’s a 2-0 lead at the 5:08 mark.Allison Butler made it 3-0, scoring out of a scramble in front of the Woburn net, at 6:21 of the second period; and Courtney Winters finished things off at 6:44 of the third period, knocking a loose puck down, and swiping it in from goalie Meg Moore’s left side.”I’d call this a meat and potatoes win,” said Pagliuca. “We played well in spurts.”But still,” he said, “it’s a win, on the road, against a quality team. So we’ll take that.”Woburn gave the Spartans all they could handle last March, falling, 1-0, to the Spartans in the state championship final. However, Pagliuca said that many of the girls who spearheaded Woburn’s effort – which also included an overtime win over the English/Winthrop combine along the way – have graduated.Center Erin McAndrews, who has a chance – if both the softball and hockey teams win state titles this year – of walking out of high school with five championship rings, will attend Sacred Heart University in Hartford this fall.McAndrews backboned the softball team to a state championship last spring, and is also a member of the 2008 and 2009 hockey champs as well.
