LYNN — Add another chapter to the St. Mary’s and Austin Prep girls hockey rivalry.
In a much-anticipated game Saturday at Connery Rink, the Cougars used a strong third period to score two goals in a little more than a minute and earn rivalry bragging rights with a 3-0 win over the Spartans.
“Against good teams, you have to finish your chances and we had some point-blank range changes, but their goalie played phenomenal,” said Spartans coach Frank Pagliuca. “They had just a couple of chances they scored on. We didn’t, and you gotta finish those chances against good teams.”
The game came down to a three-minute span in the third period. While Cougar Felicia Zuccola scored the eventual game-winning goal, it was a defensive play she made that might have been the play of the game.
Clinging to a 1-0 lead with 10 minutes to go, the Cougars were backed up in their own end after the Spartans were on the attack with a power play. St. Mary’s Jenna Chaplain flicked a wrist shot on goal. Lauryn Hanafin made the initial save, but the rebound was loose in the crease where Lexie Turner and Zoe Solomons tried to jam it home. The puck popped back to Chaplain, alone in the slot. She ripped a shot into heavy traffic that was inches away from crossing the goal line only to be swatted away by Zuccola, while flat on her stomach in the crease.
St. Mary’s was called for a penalty.
That was just the ticket for the Cougars, who went on to score two goals in a span of a little more than a minute to put the game out of reach.
Austin Prep came out of the gate fast, dictating the pace of play for much of the first period, but Hanafin and Spartan goalie Rhyan Pitari withstood every attack.
The Cougars finally broke through with under a minute to play in the period when Zuccola dumped the puck on net from the left point. The puck deflected off a Spartan skate past Pitari to make it 1-0 Spartans with 33 seconds left in the period.
“It was a little misread, a little miscommunication,” said Pagliuca. “(It was) a bit of a fluky goal, but I thought we responded well after that.”
St. Mary’s stepped up the attack in the second period. Its best chance came with a little more than two minutes left in the period. Chaplain, on a delayed penalty, slipped in alone on Hanafin and sent a backhander toward the net, but Hanafin made a scrambling save and clear.
“I thought we picked it up in the second period,” Pagliuca said. “I mean at the end of the second period we had a chance from point-blank range in front and we didn’t score. It took us a while as we started off a little slow. But once we got into the game we were in it.”
Like the second, both teams had plenty of chances to score in the third period, but it was Austin Prep who converted.
Just 12 seconds into the power play following Zuccola’s goal-saving clear, Frankie Frelick (from Maeve Carey) made it a 2-0 game at the 6:46 mark of the third. A little more than a minute later, Isabel Hulse (from Frelick) added an insurance goal.
Despite the loss, Pagliuca was happy with the Spartans’ play.
“I was pleased with our effort and the way some people stepped up,” he said. “Kate Gray, Felicia D’Alessandro and Kelly Lovett played well. It was one of the better games they have played all year. Rhyan Pitari (18 saves) played very well in net. That was encouraging, but we have some work to do, which is not a bad thing, but we’ll take those as learning experiences.”
St. Mary’s (14-1-3) is back in action Tuesday against Needham (12) at the Hingham Showcase tournament. Austin Prep’s (16-1-2) next game is at home Monday against Arlington Catholic (3).
