Saugus duo coaching in Super 8

They came into the Super 8 as the top four seeds in the Division 1A tournament and now Catholic Memorial, Austin Prep, Hingham and Malden Catholic are set to meet for a trip to TD Garden on Sunday (6) for the championship game. The coaches of both Austin Prep and MC – Lou Finocchiaro and Chris Serino, respectively – both hail from Saugus.Semifinal play in the crossover round will open tonight at the Tsongas Center in Lowell with No. 3 seed Hingham taking on No. 4 Malden Catholic at 6 with No. 2 Austin Prep and No. 1 Catholic Memorial set to meet in the nightcap at 8.For the Lancers and Knights, their spots in the crossover were already guaranteed before Sunday’s final round of pool play. Austin and Hingham, however, had to sweat out their spots.MC was the only team to go through the pool play portion of the tournament unbeaten, knocking off Needham and Winchester before defeating the Knights, 6-5, in overtime on Sunday to earn the No. 1 seed in Bracket Two.The Lancers (16-3-4) have been led by their dynamic line of Mike Vecchione, Brendan Collier and Ryan Fitzgerald.Vecchione, a Saugus native, has a team-leading 54 points and 25 goals. Collier leads all Super 8 players with seven points while Fitzgerald, son of former NHL-er Tom Fitzgerald, has racked up 47 points in his first campaign.Peabody’s Alex Minter has also had a standout season for Serino’s team, with nine goals and 35 points. Lynn’s Dan Travers has a goal and three assists this season.The game is a rematch of a meeting earlier in the season when the two teams played to a 2-2 deadlock in Malden. The Harbormen (19-3-3) were in position to be the No. 1 seed in their bracket but were blasted, 4-0, by Austin in their final pool play game.Hingham then had to sit on pins and needles and watch as Springfield Cathedral tied Xaverian, 3-3, to finally give the Harbormen their spot in the semifinals.The Harbormen are led by 51-point scorer Tim Driscoll and seniors Eric Sherman (17-17-34) and Andrew Pompeo (10-22-32).Game two will be a meeting between two teams that were dominant in the regular season and are a combined 35-5-4 entering the semifinals.Austin shut out Xaverian in their opener before suffering a 2-1 overtime loss to Springfield that put the No. 2 seed on the verge of elimination.The Cougars, who had a 14-game unbeaten streak to end the regular season, fought back and dominated Hingham for 45 minutes in their win that clinched the No. 1 spot in their bracket.Austin is led by sophomore sensations Brendan Silk and Casey Miller. Silk leads the team with 21 goals and 36 points while Miller has a team-leading 22 assists and is second on the club with 35 points. Saugus’ Ryley MacEachern has two goals and 14 points as a part of the Cougars’ top defense pairing.Defending champion CM entered as the top seed and will face the team that garnered the other votes for the top spot from the ice hockey committee during the tournament’s selection process.CM rolled past Winchester and Needham in convincing fashion to clinch its spot in the semis before the loss to MC. Senior Derek Colucci, a high Division 1 prospect, leads the Knights attack with 36 points.