Krause: A great run concludes

NORTH BILLERICA – Shed no tears for the St. Mary?s boys hockey team … at least none beyond the usual (and understandable) disappointment of losing.They were beaten by Reading. Were it not for goalie Bailey MacBurnie, the score could have been double the 2-0 loss they suffered Wednesday at the Chelmsford Forum. But there?s no shame in that. Reading might have been the lower seed in the Division 1 North tournament (St. Mary?s was No. 1 while Reading is 12th), but those seeds are a little deceiving. Reading still won 12 games, and the Rockets were coming off an appearance in the Division 1A tournament last year.?And,” said Spartan coach Mark Lee, “they had a lot of those kids back.”Reading was bigger, faster and more experienced.?We had a lot of kids who were in the tournament for the first time,” said Lee, “and it?s tough to know what to expect if you haven?t been there. You grip the stick a little tighter … things like that.”Two years ago, St. Mary?s made it all the way to the last game of the Division 1A preliminaries, and the Spartans were poised to bring back a deep, experienced team for another run in 2012-2013. That was the plan, anyway.Only the plans changed when several players — including MacBurnie — transferred to prep schools.?We had an awful lot of people leave,” said Lee, “and we had a tough year last year. We didn?t make the tournament. And look how we rebounded this year. It took us two years, but we?re back. And we should have an experienced team coming back.”Lee understands the vagaries of high school hockey at this level, and he isn?t complaining about what happened. Actually, he?s quite proud of the way his program bounced back. It helped that after a year elsewhere, MacBurnie returned to the fold for his senior year, and his goaltending was clearly a factor in the team?s resurgence. As the team?s No. 1 goalie, he sported a 1.71 GAA. And Wednesday night, when Reading went on two straight power plays in the second period — when the game was still scoreless — he was at his best.Thanks to the goalie, and an infusion of young talent, St. Mary?s went 14-4-2 during the regular season. And when it came time to decide on which teams went into the Division 1A category and which were relegated to Division 1, St. Mary?s was the last team eliminated from the elite group.?We thought,” said Lee, “that when it came time to make those decisions, we didn?t get the respect that we thought we deserved. But at the same time, just to be in the conversation … we were the last team out.”The Spartans won two straight close games, over Waltham and Winchester (the latter in a shootout), before the Rockets launched them from the tournament.Reading will play Wilmington, an overtime winner over Arlington in the other semifinal, Monday at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell. St. Mary?s goes home having put its program back on the map.?We had some real good seniors who did everything they could to show the younger kids how it?s done,” said Lee. “No regrets. We leave here tonight with our heads held high.”