St. Mary’s hockey stays hot in win over Fenwick

LYNN ? Back in December, talk about St. Mary’s and the Division 1A tournament would have been far-fetched. But the Spartans have put themselves at least into the discussion.
Dante Maribito, Jon Powers and Mike Zampanti scored two goals each for the Spartans (11-6-3) in an easy 7-0 rout of Bishop Fenwick, Friday night, at Connery Rink. St. Mary’s scored three goals in just 15 seconds in the second period, and one of Maribito’s goals in the first period came when the Spartans were playing two-men shorthanded.
Maribito added three assists to give him a five-point night.
Should St. Mary’s have a good showing in the Cathedral Hockey Classic this week in Springfield, the Spartans could be very much part of the Super Eight conversation.
?It’s a possibility,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We’re going to end up playing two very good teams, and if we play good games, we could get some consideration.”
The Spartans opened their season with an 0-4-2 record, which included a 2-2 tie against a Fenwick team St. Mary’s outclassed Friday night.
?We’re a young team, and we were making mistakes early in the season,” Lee said, “As the season has gone along, we’ve corrected some of those mistakes and we’ve improved as a team.”
Both of Maribito’s goals came in the first period. At 10:23, he tipped home a shot from the left point by Marc Zampanti. With two Spartans in the penalty box, Maribito blocked a shot at his own blue line and skated in alone, beating Fenwick goalie Bobby Lombardi to make the score 2-0, which is how the first period ended.
The Spartans effectively put the game away with their three-goal blitz in 15 seconds. Eric Pedro took a pass in the slot from Maribito and whipped it past Lombardi to begin the spurt. After the ensuing faceoff, Mike Zampanti led a 2-on-1 and beat the goalie with a high shot over his glove. Powers ended the eruption with a low shot over Lombardi’s glove.
Later in the second period, Mike Zampanti scored again, when he tapped in a pass from Pedro on a 2-on-1 break.
The only goal of the third period was a shorthanded goal from Powers, who picked up a loose puck in the left circle, skated toward the slot and whipped a backhander past a down-and-out Lombardi.
Ryan Borders and Connor Jennings split the goaltending duties for St. Mary’s and combined to stop 10 shots for the shutout. They were two of seven seniors playing their final regular-season game at Connery Rink.?We wanted to send our seniors off in style tonight,” Lee said. “We also had some motivation because we didn’t play very well against Fenwick the last time we faced them. We’re proud of the effort the kids put forth tonight. It was a good win.”