St. John’s ousts St. Mary’s in Super 8

NORTH ANDOVER – The long-awaited meeting between St. John’s Prep and St. Mary’s had the capacity crowd at Lawler Arena holding its collective breath as time ran down in regulation of a 1-1 tie.Enter the Prep’s top gun to rescue the Eagles.Sam Kurker took advantage of a turnover and scored with 3:20 left to put the Prep in front with Brian Pinho’s insurance goal accounting for a 3-1 win that moved the Eagles to the Division 1A semis and ended one of the best seasons in St. Mary’s history.”Sam has been the go-to guy for us all season and in the biggest game of the year he came up huge,” Eagles coach Kristian Hanson said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for St. Mary’s and what (coach) Mark (Lee) has done over there. They have come a long way and are a legitimate title contender now.”The Spartans (19-3-3) had plenty of chances in the third period but couldn’t get one of their 15 shots past David Letarte, leaving the door open for the Eagles to come away with the win.St. John’s advances to play BC High on Wednesday at Merrimack (time TBA).”Hats off to St. John’s,” Lee said. “They are a great team and have been for many years. But my guys gave everything they had out there. There’s no negatives. It was a great game.”The game started almost exactly how St. Mary’s fans would have liked as the Spartans took a 1-0 lead just past the midpoint of the period when Cam O’Neill was on the doorstep and shoveled home a Frank Moreschi rebound at 8:15.Letarte came up with a couple more nice saves as the period ticked along, keeping his team down by only a goal despite another sluggish first period effort.”We thought going in that they would come out with a lot of energy and the goal was just to play even and hold them off,” Hanson said.The Eagles were a drastically different flock when the second period began as they took the play to St. Mary’s. Bailey MacBurnie stopped Pinho on an early breakaway before Jarrod Fitzpatrick was called for charging at 3:32.It didn’t take long for St. John’s to pounce as Kurker pinched in along the left wing boards and fired a Nick Pandelena rebound between MacBurnie’s legs for the equalizer.”You can’t beat a team the caliber of St. John’s when you’re shorthanded,” Lee said.MacBurnie kept the game tied through two periods with brilliant goaltending as the Eagles held an 8-3 shots on goal advantage in the middle stanza.”We picked up our play a lot in the second period,” Hanson said.With a semifinal berth at stake, there was plenty of emotion as the third period began. The Spartans nearly took the lead early but Letarte made a left skate save on Brendan Mageary’s rebound chance.St. Mary’s then had a power play chance with 9:44 left but the Eagles were the ones buzzing, getting three quality looks against MacBurnie.Then came the break the Eagles needed as Kurker pounced on a Spartan turnover, snapping a shot over MacBurnie’s glove and just inside the right post.”When the game was on the line, our top guys stepped up,” Hanson said.Two minutes later, Kurker sprang Pinho in the neutral zone and he was able to tuck a shot just inside the right post to provide the knockout punch.”Bailey did a great job in net as a sophomore,” Lee said. “That’s a lot of pressure and he handled it well. It was a great season and it’s hard to see it end.”In other Super 8 action, Malden Catholic beat Hingham 7-2. Ryan Fitzgerald had a hat trick for the Lancers, who play Central Catholic Wednesday at Merrimack (time TBA).