St. Mary’s hockey reaches Kasabuski final

SAUGUS – Since coming to the Catholic Central League/Large, the St. Mary’s hockey team had knocked off every team in the CCL except one: Austin Prep.The Cougars had been the thorn in St. Mary’s side in recent years but on Tuesday at Kasabuski Arena, the Spartans finally got that monkey off their backs.James Perkins banged home the rebound of a Bucky Surette shot with 57.3 seconds left in overtime as the Spartans claimed a 2-1 win (a tie in the CCL and MIAA official standings) and a date with No. 1 ranked Malden Catholic in tonight’s Division 1 final at the Kasabuski Christmas Classic. The Lancers defeated St. Bernard’s, 18-0, in the other semifinal.”I am very proud of how the guys never quit working,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We have an immense amount of respect for Austin Prep as a program and for us to get a win over a team like that when we don’t play our best says a lot for the guys in our locker room.”Despite outshooting AP 20-17 in the game, the Spartans (2-0-2) struggled to find their way at times on Tuesday and relied on solid goaltending from Donald Hesse to keep Austin from pulling out in front when they had control of the game for much of the first period and a half.”St. Mary’s played well and they were disciplined,” Austin coach Lou Finocchiaro said. “And we played well. We just didn’t do a good job offensively of helping out our defensemen when they had the puck.”Neither team could score in the opening period and it stayed that way until 5:32 into the second when Tim Benedetto potted a power play goal, assisted by Ryan Quinn and Steve Caruso, for a 1-0 Austin lead.St. Mary’s got back even a little under four minutes later as Brendan Mageary’s nifty pass in neutral ice sprung Julian Yourawski for a partial breakaway and he didn’t miss, putting a backhander past Nick Luise to deadlock things going to the third.Both teams had chances to win the game late in regulation but came away empty and would need the extra session to decide things.In the overtime, St. Mary’s held Austin without a shot but it looked like a shootout was going to decide the outcome before the Spartans struck off an offensive zone faceoff. AP won the draw but couldn’t clear the puck and Tom Braswell got the puck to the front of the net.Surette was stopped on his bid but Perkins cleaned up the rebound to finally get St. Mary’s its win over the Cougars.”The goal in overtime was my fault,” a candid Finocchiaro said after. “We had a miscommunication in the time out before the face-off and didn’t have our defensemen switch places. So we couldn’t get the puck out and they made a nice play.”MC had little trouble advancing as it ripped off 10 unanswered first period goals and never looked back against the Bernardians. Saugus’ Mike Vecchione had a hat trick and three assists for the Lancers while Lynn’s Matt Hamill had three assists.In the Division 2 competition, Saugus and Lynnfield played their way into the title game tonight (5) via 5-2 and 4-2 wins over Pentucket and Fenwick respectively.Click here for a photo gallery.The Sachems (1-0-3) didn’t make it easy as they trailed 2-0 after a period before Kurt Rodrigues, Saige Tait and Steve Kay scored second period goals to put Saugus ahead. Tyler Stretton and Drew Oxley added third period markers.Lynnfield (3-1-0) dented the scoreboard for the first time against the Crusaders all season as Chris Lang and Alex Ganter scored second period goals to break a scoreless deadlock. Fenwick (3-1-0) cut the lead to 2-1 on Bret Kidik’s penalty shot with 5:56 left to go.Chris Houda and Mike Napolitano traded goals before Matt Kelly’s empty netter iced it for the Pioneers.Danvers and Wakefield had a chance to play their way into the final but had to settle for a 2-2 tie in the other Division 2 game.