St. Mary’s takes its place in history

BOSTON – The St. Mary’s girls hockey team joined a very elite group of hockey teams in Massachusetts on Sunday night at TD Garden.The Lady Spartans polished off Woburn, 7-2, to lay claim to their third consecutive Division 1 state championship and become one of only five teams to accomplish such a feat.Click here for a photo gallery.”To win this three times in a row is a tremendous accomplishment,” St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca said. “It’s not easy, because every time they got the best that teams had to offer and everyone wanted to see them lose. It says a lot about the kids in that locker room to accomplish something like this.”St. Mary’s joins Catholic Memorial, Matignon, Northeast Regional and Billerica in the three-timers club. Ironically, it was Northeast’s consecutive wins mark that the Spartans shattered on the way to another state title.By no means was this game easy, however, as the Tanners proved their mettle and showed their getting back to the Garden was no fluke despite their No. 22 seed. For most of the first period, Woburn had St. Mary’s standing around and being a spectator instead of playing its game.”That was addressed in the locker room after the period,” Pagliuca said. “But all the credit to our senior leaders, they stepped it up in a huge way.”Colleen Martell gave the Tanners a 1-0 lead late in the first period when she took a Bryana Harris pass and tucked a wraparound inside the left post. St. Mary’s, though, fought back late in the first as Courtney White (two goals, assist) took an Allison Butler (goal, two assists) pass and tucked her own wraparound home to deadlock things after one.”I thought we came out and played very well at the start,” Woburn coach Bob MacCurtain said. “I think they just started to wear us down with their depth.”Any issues the Spartans had in the first were solved thanks to a quick start in the second.Sabrina Iannetti, who was a tour de force for the entire tournament, got St. Mary’s going when she tucked home a backhander on a 2-on-0 with White to make it 2-1 just 2:20 in.The Spartans failed to strike on a 5-on-3 minutes later but went up by two just past the midpoint of the second when White picked up a Butler rebound and slid it past Meghan Moore. Less than a minute later, Iannetti got her second of the night when her 45-footer got by a startled Moore to make it 4-1.”When Sabrina wants to play, she is on a different level than a lot of the players out there on the ice,” Pagliuca said. “We were able to pick it up and play a great second period.”The Tanners didn’t pack it in and made things interesting as time ran down in the middle period when Siobhan Duran tipped home Cassandra Connolly’s shot following a St. Mary’s turnover with six seconds left.”Yeah, I was a little angry about that one,” Pagliuca said. “We had just talked about that and it gave them the momentum going to the third.”Once again, the Spartans flexed their championship muscles with a commanding third-period performance.Erin McAndrews helped the St. Mary’s fans breathe a little easier when she took a Marisa Maccario pass and beat Moore 5-hole at 3:20 to make it 5-2 Spartans.Just under three minutes later, Butler erased any doubts about the outcome when she niftily tipped home a Michelle Macchione pass from the right point for a 6-2 lead. Courtney Winters capped the scoring in the final seconds, assisted by White and Madison Molea.”These kids have had to play through so much with everyone in the stands except their parents and fans wanting them to lose,” Pagliuca said. “They played tremendous.”