Spartans, Lancers to meet again in Kasabuski D1 tournament

It took two periods plus two minutes for the St. Mary’s hockey team to get going against Austin Prep in the semifinals of the Kasabuski Christmas Classic. But once the Spartans got revved up, they were hard to stop.Scoring three unanswered goals after trailing 1-0 in the third, St. Mary’s advanced to today’s (5) finals against Malden Catholic. The Lancers steamed past Bishop Fenwick, 8-1, in the second semifinal.”Austin Prep is a good team and we know it’s always going to be a battle against them,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We didn’t have our ‘A’ game but we were able to fight through it.”The Spartans (5-1, 2-0 CCL Large) controlled the play for most of the game, outshooting the Cougars 33-16 for the game, but freshman goalie Elijah Harris was brilliant in keeping the game deadlocked at zeroes for 30 minutes.”I thought that it was a pretty even hockey game for the most part,” Austin coach Lou Finocchiaro said. “But we need to generate more shots. And we didn’t move the puck well through the neutral zone.”Despite their struggles, the Cougars grabbed a 1-0 lead just 20 seconds into the third when Scott Corcoran netted a Ryan Quinn rebound at the left post.The resilient Spartans answered just 61 seconds later as Ryan Madden’s drive from the left point was redirected past Harris by Cam O’Neill to tie the game.”We had a lot of chances and their goalie made a lot of great saves,” Lee said. “But we stuck to our game plan and did a good job.”The game seemed headed for overtime until the Cougars were called for a penalty with 3:10 remaining. The Spartans made Austin pay as Bobby Mullins took a nifty drop pass from Brendan Mageary and ripped a shot through Harris’ legs for a 2-1 lead with 1:52 remaining.Jarrod Fitzpatrick’s empty net goal a minute later sealed the win for St. Mary’s.In the nightcap, the Lancers (3-1) dominated against Fenwick, finishing with a 40-8 shots on goal advantage. Brendan Collier led the way, finishing with four goals and an assist while Ryan Fitzgerald had a goal and three assists in his return from a shoulder injury.Collier had two goals in the first and Ara Nazarian added another to give the Lancers a 3-0 lead after a period. The Boston University bound junior added two more in the second, sandwiching goals by Rick Keogh and Fitzpatrick to make it 7-0 after two.Joe Shea got Fenwick on the board with 1:20 left before Casey Fitzgerald closed the scoring in the final minute.