St. Mary’s opens postseason in dominant fashion

STONEHAM – The St. Mary?s Spartans came away with a dominant 4-0 win over the Winchester Sachems in the quarterfinal round of the MIAA Division 1 North hockey tournament Thursday night. The Spartans were led by their tough, physical play and some great goaltending from senior Ryan Borders.
The Spartans came out with an agenda in the first period, and that was to hit as many Winchester players as possible. It worked right away and St. Mary?s held the physical edge throughout the period. Senior forward Jon Powers came onto the ice and laid down some serious punishment on several different occasions.
?That?s actually been a weakness of ours this year, not playing as physically as we should,” Spartans? coach Mark Lee said after the game. “But we set a good pace at the beginning and finished our checks.”
Borders was tested early, but he stopped everything that came his way.
On the other end, St. Mary?s got some good scoring opportunities early, but they had a hard time actually getting the puck on net. The few that did get through were stopped by Sachems? goalie Christy Redler, and the two teams remained scoreless after one.
The Spartans started the second period on the power play, but they were unsuccessful. But just as it ended, Powers crashed the net and hit junior Connor Foley out in front. Foley was taken down on the play but still managed to redirect the puck right into the net to give St. Mary?s the 1-0 lead.
The Spartans didn?t stop there. They continued to crash the net for the remainder of the period, getting scoring chance after scoring chance. Even when they were on the penalty kill, they were getting the puck into the offensive zone and putting pressure on Redler.
All that attacking did its job. As the second period wound to a close, St. Mary?s was on the power play. Dante Maribito made a great pass to Andrew Kreamer in the right circle. Kreamer centered it for sophomore Mike Zampanti, who buried it in the back of the net to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead after two periods.
St. Mary?s was in clock-killing mode for much of the third period, but it were also able to extend its lead beyond reach. The Spartans dominated the puck for much of the period and relentlessly attacked the Winchester net.
Borders continued to be a force in net, stopping 18 shots in the game and recording the shutout.
?He made some great stops at some very opportune times for us tonight,” Lee said. “And he really kind of took the team on his shoulders a little bit.”
With just under two minutes remaining, Powers netted the backbreaker to go up 3-0. The Sachems pulled their goalie and brought out the extra attacker, but it was all for naught. Maribito tossed one into the empty net to seal the 4-0 win for the Spartans.
After the game, Powers said he thinks this St. Mary?s team is better than last year?s.
?I think we?re much stronger up front this year, we?ve got some great players,” he said.
The Spartans will now take on Arlington in the Division 1 North semifinals.Mike Alongi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @m_alongi.