LYNN — Tuesday marked the six-year anniversary of the untimely passing of former St. Mary’s hockey captain Pat Reddy. Wednesday, the Spartans honored Reddy with a dominant 7-2 victory over Bishop Fenwick in a game they dedicated to their ex-captain.
“We went to his Mass on Sunday as a team and dedicated tonight’s game to his memory,” explained coach Mark Lee. “He was in our thoughts, memories, and hearts tonight and we were able to go out and play very hard in honor of him.”
It was evident early on that the 2-1 victory St. Mary’s escaped with earlier this season over Fenwick wasn’t going to cut it for the Spartans. In that contest, the would-be tying goal for the Crusaders (2-8) was disallowed because of a crease violation, helping St. Mary’s escape with a victory.
“We were frustrated last time we played them because we outshot them by a big margin but couldn’t find the back of the net against Pat O’Leary,” said Lee of the previous matchup. “We knew we had to come out tonight and pressure them from the get-go.”
That they did.
From the opening faceoff, the Spartans were all over the Crusaders and managed to beat O’Leary early on. Just 1:31 in, Ryan Madden put a shot over O’Leary’s left shoulder from the slot for the 1-0 lead. Just ten seconds later, Dan Donovan played copy-cat, beating O’Leary to the same spot after a beautiful pass from Andrew DiMaiti, stationed behind the goal line.
The Spartans kept on pushing, and cashed in twice more in the period. Shawn MacBurnie had the third goal, cleaning up a rebound before Jon Powers scored a goal with about two and a half to play in the period.
On the Powers goal, Fenwick captain P.J. Usalis had the top of his wrist accidentally cut by a skate, leaving a trail of blood from the crease to the bench. Usalis walked off under his own power.
The referees decided to end the period early so the ice could be cleaned, before the teams finished up and then switched ends for the second. In the short time left before the switch, Fenwick got a goal from Mike Napolitano, cutting the deficit to three.
St. Mary’s responded with the only goal of the second courtesy of Powers who banged home a rebound after a shot from Chris Price at the left circle. The Spartans would tack on two more, just 24 seconds apart in the third.
Jordan Manthorne scored the first, picking the top right corner after breaking in alone before MacBurnie added his second of the night to end the scoring. Fenwick scored with 39 seconds remaining before the final buzzer.
“I was pretty happy with the way the kids played tonight,” said Lee of the victory. “It was nice to get out of the scoring funk we’ve been in recently, and especially against a good goaltender in O’Leary.”
St. Mary’s (3-4-2) next plays on Saturday against Coyle & Cassidy, a game Lee knows his team needs to be ready for.
“Our main goal is to make the state tournament so every game from here on out is big,” he said. “We cannot give points away. We’re just going to take things one game at a time.”
