St. Mary’s hockey eliminated by Arlington

STONEHAM – This season for the St. Mary?s boys? hockey team has been something like a roller coaster. But the ride came to its unfortunate end as the Spartans lost, 2-1, to Arlington in the quarterfinals of the Division 1 North tournament on Sunday evening at Stoneham Arena.
The No. 6 Spartans jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Arlington, early in the second period, before the third-seeded Spy Ponders answered with two goals of their own in the same frame. St. Mary?s tried in vain to bury the equalizer over the final 15 minutes but it wasn?t to be.
?We played very well in spurts but you have to give Arlington a lot of credit for doing everything under the sun to block shots,” said Spartans? coach Mark Lee. “I?m very proud of this team and I really feel for them considering the kind of effort they gave tonight.”
Spy Ponders? coach John Messuri echoed the sentiment.
?I have the utmost respect for Coach Lee who continuously gets his guys to play a very tough and honest style of hockey, each and every year,” Messuri said. “This was a great hockey game that could have gone either way.”
St. Mary?s (13-7-3) opened the scoring at 12:55 of the middle period. Sophomore Mike Zampanti sent a pass up the right boards to senior defenseman Clay Yianacopolus whose ensuing shot into net-front traffic was tipped home by sophomore Mike Desmond.
The lead held for just over eight minutes until Arlington found the equalizer in the vulnerable minute of a fruitless power play. Just eight seconds after freshman Max McKay was released from the penalty box, Justin DeMarco banged home a rebound generated off a shot from Sean Tomaszewski. A secondary assist was credited to Michael Addorisio.
Arlington (15-3-4) wasted little time in grabbing the lead as Peter Scheschareg?s wrist shot cleanly beat St. Mary?s senior goaltender Ryan Borders (16 saves) just 3:02 later.
?It?s just a shame because I really thought we held the edge for most of the (second) period,” said Lee. “We got one to show for it but (Arlington) did a nice job in pushing back. We came out and played well in the third but it wasn?t enough. That?s just how this game goes sometimes.”
Borders and Arlington goalie Ryan Cote (31 saves) staged quite the battle between the pipes, particularly in periods one and three. Borders was bailed out by the cross bar on two occasions in the opening frame while the Cote received plenty of help from the front lines in the game?s waning moments.
Lee heaped his praises on Borders, Yianacopolus and his fellow seniors (Connor Jennings, Shawn MacBurnie, Jon Powers and Joe Scalli) following the group?s final game.
?We?re going to miss them for sure,” he said. “This was a great group of kids who bled blue and gold for a number of years. They left it all out on the ice and that?s all you can ask of them.”Arlington advances to the semifinals where they?ll match up with No. 10 Chelmsford on Thursday.