St. Mary’s boys hockey rallies, ousts Burlington

WOBURN – It took a 2-0 deficit and the end of its season staring it straight in the face to give the St. Mary’s boys hockey team the boost it needed in its Division 1 North quarterfinal meeting with Burlington on Saturday.The Red Devils had outplayed the Spartans for the first 20 minutes on Saturday but with three goals in a 2:39 span of the second period, St. Mary’s assumed control and rolled to a 5-2 win and a date with Winchester in the semis on Wednesday (5:10) at the Chelmsford Forum.Click here for a photo gallery.”This team showed (Saturday) that they want to keep playing,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “I am so proud of this group. They didn’t quit down 2-0 and that’s why they had the ability to come back.”Showing a bit of rust after four days off, the Spartans were held to only two shots on net in the first period and found themselves in a 1-0 hole when Dan McMahon scored at 3:03 just after a St. Mary’s penalty expired.The plight for St. Mary’s got worse early in the second when Joe Berardi tipped home a Brian DeJoy shot at 5:33 for a 2-0 Red Devils lead. In need of a kick start, St. Mary’s got it when it went on the power play midway through the period.Nikko Markham’s blast from the left point, assisted by Cam O’Neill and James Perkins, got the Spartans on the board. Just over two minutes later, Julian Yourawski scored on a Cam Kennedy rebound to tie the game at 2-2.Off the ensuing draw, Connor Parent sprung Brendan Mageary for a breakaway goal 10 seconds later to give St. Mary’s a stunning 3-2 lead after two periods.”We’ve struggled on the power play all year and we spent extra time in practice working on it this week. It was nice to see it pay off,” Lee said.Derek Stella kept the Spartan bandwagon rolling at 4:18 of the third when he followed his own shot and tucked a wraparound inside the right post. Tim Aylward capped the comeback at 10:12, assisted by Bucky Surette.”We came out a little flat but this team found a way to get the job done,” Lee said. “I am so proud of them for that.”