MC, St. John’s both win in Super 8 hockey

LOWELL – North Shore hockey fans’ dreams of a Malden Catholic-St. John’s battle in the Super Eight finals are alive and well.Both teams took care of business on Sunday at Tsongas Arena to clinch first place in their respective brackets and guarantee that they cannot meet until on the ice at TD Garden next Sunday for the title game.The Eagles had by far the easier of the games, as they scored on their first three shots of the game and rolled to a 6-1 win over BC High. The drama came in the Lancers’ meeting with Weymouth and in the tunnels underneath Tsongas following the game.MC rallied back twice to take a dramatic 5-4 win over the Wildcats on Ryan Fitzgerald’s goal with 1:31 left in regulation. But the true chaos ensued after the game as both the Weymouth and Central Catholic coaching staffs thought they were moving to the semifinal round.After a long discussion, it was determined that it was Weymouth who moved on via a tiebreaker and earned a date with the Prep in the semis on Wednesday (5:35) at Merrimack College.How close was the tiebreaker? Weymouth pulled goaltender Brian Brady for an extra attacker in the final minute in the belief it needed to win the game to advance. If the Lancers had scored at that time, it would have sent Central on by percentage points.Either way, MC coach Chris Serino was not thrilled with how his club played.”We didn’t play our best, clearly,” Serino said. “We were horrendous defensively but the positive is that we found a way to win the game.”The Wildcats came out on fire and stunned MC by taking a 2-0 lead after the first period via goals from Ian Sheridan and Tyler Piacentini. MC fought back to get on the board on Mike Iovanna’s goal at 4:53 and then tied the game at 6:58 on Colin McGillivray’s drive from the blue line.MC then delivered what seemed to be a knockout punch when Fitzgerald scored on a breakaway at 14:55 for a 3-2 Lancer lead after two.Weymouth, though, fought back and tied the game on the power play at 2:46 when Corey Tuplin scored on a rebound. Four minutes later, Riley Flanagan put the Wildcats back on top at 4-3.MC fought back as Nick Roberto got the equalizer at 11:06 and Fitzgerald sizzled a wrister over Brady’s glove from the slot for the game-winner.”It took us being down a couple goals to play with a sense of urgency,” Serino said. “Then when we tied the game, we went back to playing like we were before.”Next up for MC: BC High Wednesday at Merrimack (8:05).St. John’s 5, BC High 1The Eagles’ road to the semis had already been punched on Sunday and they played like a team with nothing to lose as Colin Blackwell scored 10 seconds into the game to send the Prep off on its merry way.On the next shift, third liner Devin Murray made it 2-0 before Jon Farrow converted at 1:40 to up the gap to 3-0 on the Eagles’ first three shots.Freshman Shane Eiserman completed the first period onslaught when he cut to the net and finished off a Sam Kurker pass with 33.5 seconds left for a 4-0 lead after one.BC cut into the Prep lead early in the second when Terence Durkin’s centering pass hit off a Prep skate and trickled past goalie David LeTarte to make it 4-1 after two.The Prep got that goal back midway in the third when Kurker scored shorthanded at 8:27, assisted by Blackwell and Eiserman, to restore the four-goal gulf. Derek Palm capped the scoring with a little over four minutes left.