LYNN — St. Mary’s senior Lexie Turner’s in her first season on the Spartans girls hockey team. But you wouldn’t be able to tell if you watched Turner’s play on the ice.
Turner has jumped into St. Mary’s talented offense without a hitch, scoring four goals and dishing one assist through five games. Wednesday, Turner broke out for her first hat trick in a 6-1 win at Winthrop.
“It’s been awesome,” Turner said of joining St. Mary’s. “The girls are so nice. We have a really good team. There’s a lot of depth. It’s been really fun playing on this team. Just playing with this group it’s so much easier. It’s better hockey.”
Certainly helping the transition to a new team this winter is that fact that Turner has already played with several of her new Spartans teammates. Turner is one of three Melrose natives on St. Mary’s roster, including linemate Maggie Pierce.
“I came from Matignon and transferred here,” Turner said. “All my friends are here and I’ve played with a bunch of them since youth hockey. We all get along. We have great chemistry.”
That chemistry is pretty clear watching the Spartans’ first line, which includes Turner, Pierce and Zoe Solomons. They’ve helped contributed to a St. Mary’s offense that’s scored 20 goals so far this year.
“Lexie, Maggie and Zoe are out there making a lot of opportunities offensively,” Spartans coach Frank Pagliuca said. “When we can get all three, four lines going we really create a lot of opportunities.
“Lexie is fast and she can shoot,” Pagliuca said. “She’s a smart player and she’s aggressive. I think it really complements the rest of the players on her line.”
Early on in the season and before that in that preseason Pagliuca was quick to notice what Turner adds to an already skilled roster.
“Although it’s Lexie’s first year in the program she’s fit in as if she’s been here for several years,” Pagliuca said. “She’s very coachable and a great teammate. On the ice, she’s brought another dimension of speed, playmaking ability and competitiveness that has really benefited our team. Off the ice she’s a great kid to have in the program.”
Turner may not have been there for the Spartans early exit from the state tournament last winter, but her teammates all share the same goal to go deeper into the postseason this year.
“We really set a goal to make it to the state final,” Turner said. “We don’t just want to make the tournament. We really want to compete in the tournament and go far. I think we’re all just really focused on that. Coach always says, ‘to be a good team you have to from the start push really hard and play three solid periods of hockey.'”
The Spartans have done that for the most part this year. St. Mary’s tied Austin Prep (3-3) to begin the season but since then they’ve won four straight games. The key has been to utilize the skills the Spartans are best at, Turner says.
“What we’ve really been trying to do is use our skating to our advantage,” Turner said. “We’re all pretty quick skaters so definitely using our abilities to do that and taking care of the puck are key. Playing good defense, not allowing shots on our goalie and then producing a lot of offense going forward.”
St. Mary’s (4-0-1) hosts Boston Latin Saturday (4).
