STONEHAM — The St. Mary’s boys hockey team knew it had to bring its A-game to the opening round of the Division 1 North tournament, and the No. 5 Spartans did just that in a 5-1 win over No. 12 Central Catholic at Stoneham Arena Wednesday night.
“Central Catholic is a well-known program and they’re always one of the best in the state, and this year is no different because it was a battle out there,” said St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee. “The score might be a little deceiving because it was an up and down game the whole way. I’m happy to see the way our guys finished out there.”
The Spartans featured five different goal scorers on the night, with Brady Bullock, Max Giardina, Kyle LoNigro, Seamus Foley and Owen Maguire each finding the back of the net. Davis Kinne, Christian Moran and Dante D’Ambrosio each had two assists in the win, while Brady Carpenter, Kory Ouellette, Colby Magliozzi and Harrison Kinne each had one assist.
In net, Spartans senior goalie Sal Caruso was a rock with 27 saves.
“In the postseason, it all starts with goaltending,” said Lee. “The bigger the game, the better he seems to play. When Central was pushing early and getting a lot of shots, he made a bunch of key saves for us. That’s what you need to be successful.”
Central Catholic came out and controlled possession in the early part of the first period, forcing St. Mary’s to do a lot of work in its own zone. Caruso was bombarded with shots in the opening frame, making nine saves.
The Spartans started to get some positive momentum going later in the period, pushing the puck into the offensive zone and getting some shots on net. Things finally paid off with just 30 seconds left in the period. Davis Kinne dug the puck out of the corner and sent a pass out to Moran at the blue line. Moran fired a shot on net that Central goalie Michael Brothers turned away, but Bullock was sitting right there for the rebound. Bullock slammed the puck home and St. Mary’s took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
“Scoring a goal at the end of a period like that is always big for momentum,” said Lee. “We came out a little flat early and Central took it to us in the opening minutes. But we settled down, started to play our game and we were able to capitalize at the end of the period.”
There was more back and forth in the second period. Central was able to tie the game at 1-1 with just over eight minutes to go after Aidan O’Connell found the back of the net after a faceoff win by Mark Mangione.
But less than four minutes later, St. Mary’s responded to retake the lead. The Spartans got a break going up the ice thanks to Ouellette, who sent a pass to D’Ambrosio up the left side. D’Ambrosio then fired a pass over to Giardina, who flicked the puck into the back of the net to give St. Mary’s the lead.
The third period belonged entirely to the Spartans. After killing off a penalty in the early minutes, St. Mary’s got a powerplay goal from Maguire to extend its lead to 3-1 with just over five minutes to play. LoNigro added a goal 40 seconds later to make it 4-1, then Foley capped off the scoring with 1:29 to play in the game.
St. Mary’s (13-7-2) now moves on to face No. 4 Belmont in the Division 1 North quarterfinal at Woburn Memorial Rink Saturday (TBA).
“Our philosophy has always been to focus on us and our execution as a team, no matter who we play,” said Lee. “Defense-first hockey is what St. Mary’s lives by, and we want to keep it that way. We’re just going to go over a few things in the coming days and we’ll be ready to go on Saturday.”
