LYNN — Sometimes a loss can only help your team in the long run.
That was the St. Mary’s boys hockey team’s takeaway after the previously unbeaten Spartans fell to Catholic Central League rival Austin Prep, 2-1, Wednesday evening at Connery Rink.
St. Mary’s grabbed a swift 1-0 lead in the opening period, but Austin Prep’s 2-goal second frame became the Spartans’ undoing.
“You have to look at the positives,” Spartans coach Mark Lee said. “Our goaltender (Owen Giangrande) played great, again. We took the entire second period off, which is uncharacteristic of us. We were outplayed and outshot. Everything broke down in the second period. I thought we played a pretty good first and third period but with the competition we’re playing, we can’t play two periods. We have to play three.”
Brady Carpenter netted St. Mary’s lone goal of the night on Kory Ouellette’s assist.
Giangrande finished with 28 saves on 30 Austin Prep shots. The sophomore goalie did his best to weather a Cougars onslaught of shots in the second period and kept St. Mary’s in the battle.
“That was the positive that we talked about after the game,” Lee said. “The fact that it was 2-1, Owen gave us a chance to come back. We just couldn’t find the back of the net for the equalizer.”
After a little over seven minutes of back and forth action, St. Mary’s put the Cougars in a 1-0 hole. Carpenter, with the puck behind the net, found a slim opening and made the most of it.
Austin Prep sent a few shots Giangrande’s way at the close of the period but the Spartans kept their 1-0 lead at the first intermission.
“We came in after one period and felt very good about how we were playing,” Lee said. “I thought we held the edge in that period.”
Then the Cougars turned the tables.
Austin Prep’s offense forced Giangrande to bring his best effort over the next 15 minutes. Giangrande did just that, denying shot after shot before the Cougars found the board on Deniro DeMarco’s tally with 1:50 left in the period.
It didn’t take Austin Prep long to put St. Mary’s in a 2-1 deficit, as Brady McGrath capitalized on a 2-on-1 breakaway just 47 seconds later. It stood at 2-1 Cougars at the second intermission.
“Austin Prep came in desperate,” Lee said, referring to CCL implications. “They knew they had to beat us to stay in the hunt for it and they did. Hats off to them. They worked hard. They’re really a good team and they wanted it a little bit more than we did.”
With a few line changes, St. Mary’s regained some of its rhythm in the third period. But it was nothing doing for the Spartans, who burned a timeout with 2:23 remaining and emptied the net in the final seconds in searching for the tie.
The Spartans (8-1-1) are back it Monday night (7) when they host Hingham.
“Hingham’s a Super 8-type team,” Lee said. “They’re very talented, big, strong. It’ll be a great challenge for us. Hopefully we bounce back.”
