PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Maggie Flaherty breaks away for a one-on-one with the Haverhill goalie.
By SCOT COOPER
LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls’ hockey team did not want to begin 2016 with its fifth loss of the young season.
Thanks to three solid periods of play, a strong performance from their goalie, and a timely score, the Spartans handed Haverhill its first loss of the season with a 1-0 win at the Connery Rink on Monday.
The Hillies came into the game with a 4-0-1 record and one of the top goalies in the state, senior captain Michaela Kane, guarding the cage. St. Mary’s (3-4-2) countered with senior netminder Emily Stephenson. And it was Stephenson who stopped every shot she saw.
“I know (Michaela Kane) very well, I know what kind of goalie she is, so I knew I really couldn’t let anything get behind me if I could help it,” Stephenson, a junior from Salem, said after the game. “I knew we were getting a little frustrated because we were getting a lot of shots and no goals. I just told the girls to keep working and I knew they’d get one for me.”
St. Mary’s set the stage for the winning goal in the third period, keeping sustained pressure in front of Kane. Lynn’s Ashley Wojewodzic whipped a shot that tied up Kane and led to a face-off. Senior Katie Terban won the draw and sent the puck to teammate Maggie Flaherty, and Flaherty snapped one by Kane for the eventual game winner with 8:26 left.
Haverhill pulled Kane with 1:12 remaining, and the St. Mary’s defense kept the puck away from Stephenson. Terban almost gave the Spartans some insurance with 30 seconds left, as she banged a shot off the right post of the empty net. The Spartans controlled the puck off the ensuing face-off, and killed the clock.
“This is a game we had to win, we didn’t want to have five losses (already) in January,” Stephenson said. “We started 0-7 last year and missed the playoffs, that’s something we don’t want to happen this year, so we’re happy we won.”
Coach Frank Pagliuca was pleased with the win, but he’d like to see the team bury a few more chances. St. Mary’s went 0-4 on breakaways on Monday.
“I thought we played a solid first period, we played a little bit of whack-a-puck in the second and came back with a better third period,” Pagliuca said. “We need to finish our opportunities, and we need to do it consistently.”
The Spartans led by a wide margin in shots, 30-16, over three periods, and Pagliuca said that he wants his team to build off Monday’s win.
“St. Mary’s is a very good team,” Haverhill coach Gary Kane said. “I know they’ve had some tough losses, (and) we thought we were going to be able to steal a point or two, so credit to them,”.
Scot Cooper can be reached at [email protected] follow him on Twitter @bscooper60.
