LYNN — It’s been an-up -and-down season for the Bishop Fenwick boys hockey team, but there’s no doubt the Crusaders are riding high right now.
Led by a penalty kill that fought off six power plays chances, Fenwick knocked off St. Mary’s, 3-1, at Connery Skating Rink.
“It’s huge for us,” Fenwick coach Jim Quinlan said. “It’s a huge building thing for us. We were like a roller coaster going up and down. We went down to Connecticut and played a No. 1 team there, beat them 1-0 and played unbelievable. Then we come home and we struggle. It’s been hard for these kids, but they never gave up. They had meetings after the Arlington Catholic loss (6-3).
“I give (our team) tons of credit because they put it together (Wednesday),” Quinlan said. “They worked hard the last two days for this game. They didn’t want to lose this game.”
The Crusaders had three different goal scorers in this one. Jake Murphy got Fenwick on the board quick, Ian Worthley scored the eventual game winner late in the second period and a red-hot Cam Martin added a huge insurance goal to cap off the win.
“(Martin) has a great shot and we need that,” Quinlan said. “He’s a great hockey player, transferred in and has been learning our ways. He’s starting to come around, and has gotten three goals in the last three games for us.”
Jack Vieira allowed an early goal but was sharp the rest of the way while the Crusader’s work preparing for St. Mary’s power play paid off in a big way.
“We work penalty kill all the time,” Quinlan said. “We were aggressive on the penalty kill, I don’t sit in a box. I’ve never coached that. I believe in attacking constantly. (Davis Kinne) is their guy so we keyed on him. We attacked and attacked him so he wouldn’t be able to get shots as much.”
Max Giardina scored St. Mary’s lone goal, but overall the Spartan’s struggled to find the back of the net.
“We really struggled,” Spartans coach Mark Lee said. “We hit the crossbar a couple of times. We missed a couple wide open nets that could’ve changed the game. But I give Fenwick credit, they seemed to want it more than we did. They battled for three periods and seemed to have a little more energy.”
Fenwick had a goal waved off as the St. Mary’s net got knocked off its bearings but didn’t stop playing aggressive in the opening minute. Murphy grabbed a loose puck out front of the net and scored just 58 seconds in to put Fenwick ahead 1-0.
The Spartans responded midway through the first. Chris Kolodziej had the puck knocked away from his stick but Giardina was there to finish the play and score to tie things up at 1-1.
Things stayed tied for over 20 minutes but Fenwick’s penalty kill stayed busy dealing with four different St. Mary’s power plays.
Just after killing off a man advantage Worthley finished a 3-on-1 offensive chance with a goal to put Fenwick ahead 2-1 with just 24 ticks left in the second period.
The Spartans had a brief 5-on-3 advantage early in the third but couldn’t cash in. Martin added his insurance goal with six minutes left on the clock and Fenwick wrapped up the road win.
“We need to get better,” Lee said. “Fenwick is a pretty good team but we just as a team did not play well for three periods. When you do that you’re not going to be on the winning side of the game.”
St. Mary’s (9-3-2) is on the road at BC High Sunday (12). Fenwick (7-6-1) has another big game at Austin Prep Saturday (6).
“The biggest thing is now this team has some confidence,” Quinlan said. “They were down because we lost to Arlington Catholic, Melrose and played terribly. Now they know we can play with the best teams and beat them. Now we have Austin Prep on Saturday and if we win that game we’re in good shape.”
