Spartans keep on rolling, stay perfect with win over Austin

LYNN – For a period on Monday at Connery Rink, it looked like the St. Mary’s girls hockey team was going to be in for a struggle with Austin Prep.The Spartans, frankly, hadn’t played a very stellar opening 15 minutes and they knew it. St. Mary’s, though, righted things quickly, scoring four times in the second period to assume control of the game and record their 69th consecutive victory with a 4-0 win over the Cougars.”We just came out flat for some reason (Monday),” St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca said. “And the girls knew it and weren’t happy about it on the bench. But we rallied and played a great second period and a very good third.”The Spartans (18-0-0, 5-0-0 Catholic Central League) turned the game around with a 17-shot outburst in the second period, led by a pair of goals and two assists from Courtney Winters. The two assists pushed Winters to 100 for her career and gave her an area-leading 49 points this season (29-20).Pagliuca also knows, though, with the top-ranked team in Division 2 – Fontbonne – coming in on Wednesday night (7:30) that his team can’t afford the sluggish start.”Fontbonne probably should be in Division 1 and they are very capable of beating us,” Pagliuca said. “So we’re going to need to play our best.”St. Mary’s had a pair of power play chances in the first but failed to convert. Spartan netminder Sarah Foss also was on the ball, stopping a couple of quality Austin scoring chances in the opening 15 minutes.”Sarah, when we call on her, makes the saves,” Pagliuca said.After effectively sleepwalking through the first, St. Mary’s turned up the juice in the second. Winters got the Spartans going when she netted her 28th goal of the season at the 16-second mark to make it 1-0.Just over three minutes later, Winters added a highlight film goal to her season as she danced through two Austin defensemen and deked goalie Shannon O’Neil out of her pads to up the lead to 2-0.It was still 2-0 late in the second when Austin’s Abby Jamieson got a breakaway but Foss came up with a huge stop to keep the two-goal cushion.”That could have been a huge momentum change there if they score on the breakaway,” Pagliuca said. “But Sarah made a huge save for us.”Moments later, St. Mary’s got a power play and needed only 29 seconds to convert. Sabrina Iannetti snuck ahead of the pack and Winters found her in stride in the neutral zone. The senior faked once and tucked her shot past O’Neil for a 3-0 lead.A little under two minutes later, Erin McAndrews capped the dominant period for the Spartans with her 12th goal of the season, assisted by Winters and Marisa Maccario, at 11:50.”Our puck possession was much better in the second and our forecheckers were able to get to a lot more loose pucks,” Pagliuca said.