Spartan boys icemen easily defeat St. Bernard’s

LYNN – It wasn’t the best of performances but it was more than good enough on opening night for the St. Mary’s hockey team to blast past St. Bernard’s, 7-1, at Connery Rink on Wednesday.The Division 1 North runners-up from last year dominated most of the way, holding a 28-5 shots on goal over the Bernardians, but were still in a 3-1 game before blowing things open in the third.”Certainly we have a lot of work still to do but beginning the season with a win is huge for us,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said.The Spartans were flying right from the outset and it took a little over four minutes for them to strike first as James Perkins polished off a Tim Aylward pass for a 1-0 lead.It was still 1-0 late in the first when Bobby Mullins picked up a loose puck in a 4-on-4 situation and blasted a shot from the top of the right circle home for a 2-0 lead at 11:55. Less than two minutes later, defenseman Cam Kennedy stepped out of the penalty box and Perkins hit him with a perfect breakaway pass for a 3-0 Spartan lead after one.”We came out and played a very good first period,” Lee said.As dominant as they were in the first, the Spartans were caught back on their heels in the second period despite having an 8-3 shots on goal advantage.The teams exchanged power plays with no damage as the squads looked to be heading for the third in a 3-0 game before St. Mary’s made its only big mistake of the game.With just over a minute left, goaltender Donald Hesse came out to play a loose puck but couldn’t corral it for a face-off. The puck wound up on the stick of David Flynn for about as easy a goal as a player can dream of and St. Bernard’s suddenly found itself right back in the game.”We played a pretty tough second period,” Lee said. “But we have a veteran team and settled down nicely in the third.”Connor Parent helped restore a little order for the Spartans early in the third when he labeled a wrist shot under the crossbar, assisted by Bobby Mullins and Bryan Wilkins, to make it 4-1.The dam officially broke five minutes later when Brendan Mageary scored on a 2-on-1 with Julian Yourawski for a 5-1 lead. Derek Stella and Mullins added goals 1:40 apart late in the third to cap the scoring.