MC slips past BC High to earn Super 8 final spot

NORTH ANDOVER – It took a little more work than might have been expected but the Malden Catholic hockey team is heading back to TD Garden to play for the Super Eight title.Brendan Collier broke a 1-1 tie late in the second period and Saugus’ Mike Vecchione had two assists as the Lancers fended off a gutty effort from BC High to take a 4-2 win at Merrimack College’s Lawler Arena.Click here for a photo gallery.MC, the tourney’s top seed, will take on No. 2 seed St. John’s Prep, a 5-1 winner over Weymouth in the other semi, on Sunday (6) in the title game.”It seems to have been that way for us in this entire tournament except for one game,” MC coach Chris Serino said. “Fortunately we’ve been able to win.”The Lancers started on fire as Vecchione’s scoring bid was stopped by Peter Cronin but Ryan Fitzgerald swept the rebound home for his 29th goal and the Saugus native’s 50th assist of the season at the 31 second mark.It was an onslaught by the Lancers for most of the period as they pelted the BC net with 13 shots but Cronin’s stellar netminding was able to keep it 1-0 exiting the opening 15 minutes.The second period turned out to be a complete reversal of form as the Eagles took the game to MC for much of the middle 15 minutes.A 2-man advantage for BC High resulted in defenseman Jack Buckley unloading a blast from the right point off a Sean Talbot face-off to beat Lancer goalie Pat Young at 6:15 to tie the game at 1-1.The Lancers responded late in the period as Vecchione cut to the goal and saw his bid stopped. Brendan Collier followed the play and scored his 29th of the year on a rebound at 10:31 to send MC to the intermission up 2-1.MC’s semi-overshadowed second line then provided the knockout punch as Garrett White’s 15th goal of the season on a Mike Iovanna rebound from dead in the slot upped the lead to 3-1 with 11:13 left in regulation.”I think that the third goal settled us down and we played a lot better after that,” Serino said. “There’s been a lot of pressure on these guys all year because anything less than a state championship is going to be seen as a disappointment.”The second unit struck again with 3:58 left as White got his second when he tapped home a slick feed from Nick Roberto to make it 4-1. The Eagles came right back as Tom Besinger restored a little drama 16 seconds later.That would prove to be BC’s last salvo though as Young and the MC defense slammed the door in the final moments.