Hockey: St. John’s avenges loss to CM

The St. John’s Prep hockey team knocked off Catholic Memorial, the top-ranked team in the state, 3-1, after losing to the Knights 9-3 less than two weeks earlier. The game was at Walter Brown Arena.”CM’s the best team in the state. They’re still the best team in the state, but for one night, we skated with them and we skated well. This was a very big win for us,” Prep coach Kristian Hanson said.The Eagles scored all three goals in the first period. Joe Curry got things going 6:47 into the game with Andrew Pierce and Matt McDonald getting the assists. Greg Tremblay made it 2-0 less than two minutes later. Sam Kurker had the assist and then nailed down the win a few minutes later when he scored on a penalty shot. Prep goalie Dave Letarte made 25 saves and CM goalie Tom Knox was right behind with 21. Derek Collucci scored for the Knights in the final period.Hanson said the difference the second time around was having more confidence and playing a little more relaxed.”I think we just played with more confidence,” he said. “I know they were nervous that night (the 9-3 loss) ? I think (tonight) they kind of remembered what happened last time. They were more relaxed and felt less pressure.”The Eagles are 7-2 over their last nine games with six of the seven wins coming against teams on the Super 8 watch list. The Prep is 9-7-1, 4-2-1.St. Mary’s 5, Coyle-Cassidy 2At Connery Rink, the Spartans (11-7) fought back from an early 1-0 deficit and used three third-period goals to put the game away. The win was costly though as forward Tom Braswell was taken off the ice on a stretcher following a vicious hit in the neutral zone with 1:11 left.Braswell had movement in all his extremities and was believed to have suffered a concussion.James Perkins scored twice, including the game-winner on the power play early in the third. Brendan Mageary had a goal and an assist while Julian Yourawski and Eric Rosengren had two assists.Matt Molloy and Bobby Mullins also had goals.”We’ve been playing good lately,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “Coyle is a good team.”Marblehead 6, Somerville 1The Magicians scored three shorthanded goals and one power play goal to take a 5-0 lead before Somerville found the net. Jake Kulevich and Chris McLeod each had two goals with Kulevich also picking up a pair of assists. Alex Whitmore and Hunter Graves also got into the scoring act with shorthanded tallies. Marblehead outshot Somerville, 37-8.Winthrop 3, Medford 0At Larsen Rink, Joe Scarfo had two goals and Joe Casey, a goal and an assist as the Vikings improved to 14-1-3. Pat Feeley picked up his eighth shutout and the team’s ninth. Kyle Cummings also had an assist.