St. Mary’s earns repeat trip to Division 1 North finals

NORTH BILLERICA – From the opening face-off to the final buzzer on Wednesday, it was a virtuoso performance by the St. Mary’s hockey team.Turning the Chelmsford Forum ice into their own personal playground, the Spartans simply overwhelmed No. 5 seed Winchester from the get-go as 11 different players recorded at least a point in an 8-2 destruction by the No. 1 seed in the Division 1 North semifinals.The Spartans (16-6-3) will take on Wakefield on Saturday (7:40) at the Forum in the sectional title tilt.”From the drop of the puck we brought energy, discipline and St. Mary’s hockey at its best,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We played three periods of hockey about as good as we could (Wednesday).”St. Mary’s put on a clinic in all three zones on Wednesday. The Spartans uncorked 42 shots on the Winchester goal while holding the Sachems to 25, many of them not being quality chances.”Our defense was the rock that we needed (Wednesday),” Lee said. “They came out and played very solid.”The Spartans were swarming in the Sachems zone almost immediately and their pressure paid off at 5:36 when defenseman Cam Kennedy launched a shot from the blue line and it slipped past the right pad of Winchester goalie Sam Robinson.A little over four minutes later, the Spartans went on the power play and took full advantage as Bobby Mullins followed a James Perkins shot and lifted a backhander past Robinson at 9:36.”Our work ethic is what makes us successful and we certainly had that (Wednesday),” Lee said.The second period would be even more dominant for the Spartans as Winchester struggled at times to even get the puck out of its zone.It took only 107 seconds for St. Mary’s to strike as Cam O’Neill cruised across the slot and tipped home Kennedy’s slap shot from the left point for a 3-0 lead.”Cam certainly has been a pleasant surprise. We knew he was a pretty good athlete but he’s scored some timely goals for us,” Lee said.St. Mary’s continued to dominate the period, winding up with 14 shots on the Winchester net in the middle period, but Robinson was able to keep the Sachems close until Tommy Braswell scored nearly a carbon copy goal to O’Neill’s with 1:00 left to make it 4-0 Spartans after two.The relentless Spartans turned up the juice in the third as Winchester tried to claw its way back.James Perkins put the game away at 2:15 when he broke in with Braswell on a 2-on-1 and roofed a shot over Robinson’s shoulder.The Sachems spoiled Donald Hesse’s shutout bid with a power play goal by Nolan Redler at 4:59 before St. Mary’s put the finishing touches on its nearly perfect night.O’Neill got his second of the game on a power play at 7:32 before assisting on Connor Parent’s goal at 9:32. Brendan Mageary upped the lead to 8-1 on a breakaway at 13:03 before Winchester’s Nick Ducharme closed the scoring.”All the success we’ve had comes down to the hard work of these kids,” Lee said. “They never stop working out there.”