MC ousts Central, will play in Super 8 final

NORTH ANDOVER – Another year. Another trip to the Super 8 finals for the Malden Catholic hockey team.For the third time in the last five seasons, the Lancers will play for a Division 1A championship as Ryan Fitzgerald scored twice and Connor Maloney made 13 saves in goal to give MC a 4-0 win over Central Catholic at Lawler Arena.”This was our goal from day one,” Malden Catholic coach John McLean said. “It means a lot with everything that has happened this year.”Things didn’t come easy for MC on Wednesday as Raider goalie Kyle Williams was brilliant for much of the game. He made nine saves in the first period to keep the game scoreless when CC was being thoroughly outplayed.The Lancers continued to own play at the start of the second and were able to crack the ice just past the five-minute mark when defenseman Nick Rolli’s shot hit the post and Williams before trickling across the goal line.MC’s dominance through the first half of the game was evident in the 18-3 shots on goal advantage the Lancers held. But the Raiders began to get a foothold and started testing Maloney with quality chances.The Lancers goalie answered every challenge and then saw his team stake him to a 2-0 lead at 10:05 when Brendan Collier crashed the net and slid home a Fitzgerald rebound.Moments later, the Raiders were given a golden chance to turn the momentum when Corey Webber was awarded a penalty shot. Maloney came up with a big pad save and then dodged another bullet when Mike Kelleher missed a wide-open net on the next shift.Maloney then stopped Mike Hovnanian’s breakaway chance late in the period to preserve his team’s 2-0 lead after two. Despite having said lead, McLean was less than thrilled with how his team played that middle period.”We didn’t play well at all defensively in the second and I kind of let them know about it,” McLean said.The Lancers got the message loud and clear in the third as they put the shackles on Central, allowing a single shot on goal.Freshman Ara Nazarian effectively put the game away with 6:34 left when he scored on a Colin McGillvray rebound to make it 3-0. Fitzgerald capped the scoring at 12:54 with a nifty wraparound tally.