WATERTOWN — Monday’s first round Division 1 tournament game between the No. 5 St. Mary’s girls hockey team and No. 12 Shrewsbury was about as close as it gets, but in the end the Spartans weren’t going to be denied.
With St. Mary’s needing a big play to close out the win, freshman Maggie Pierce found herself crashing the net in the final minutes of a tie game and, after a few swipes, poked in the game-winner to lift the Spartans to the 2-1 win.
“I’ll be honest, I got on Maggie after the second period,” St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca said. “I don’t think she was playing as well as we needed her to play. Then, like any great player she responded well in the third. I’m very proud of her.”
Pagliuca was proud of all his players Monday. The Colonials may have been a lower seed, but this one was a grind from start to finish. Pierce and defenseman Megan Parthum each had a goal and an assist to lead the way while Jenna Chaplain added one assist. Rhyan Pitari had 13 saves.
“Obviously Shrewsbury is a quality team,” Pagliuca said. “I don’t know if their seeding justified how good they are. They’re tough to play against. I’m very proud of our kids. We let up a tough goal at the end of the second but we responded very well in the third.
“Overall it was a great job,” Pagliuca said. “Rhyan did a great job in net. There was a tough bounce on that one goal but she responded well. I’m just so proud of our team. We grinded that win out. It was a great win. We didn’t get many chances but we finished the ones we had.”
St. Mary’s started the night with some sound defense. Shrewsbury only had two shots on goal in the first period and the Spartans defense racked up five blocked shots. The only problem was St. Mary’s wasn’t getting any scoring chances on the other end.
Midway through the first, Parthum recorded the Spartans first shot of the game, a high wrister from the point that somehow made it through traffic out front of the Shrewsbury goal and lit the lamp to put St. Mary’s out front 1-0.
The second period was filled with penalties on both sides. Each team had a pair of chances on the man-advantage and there were a few minutes of 4-on-4 play, but it was Shrewsbury that capitalized.
Grace Felicio ripped a slap shot on the power play that just squeaked through the legs of Pitari to tie things up at 1-1.
Both goalies traded flashy saves in the third before St. Mary’s started to gain the upper hand in the final minutes. With just under four minutes to play Chaplain sent a shot on goal that was tipped by Pierce. Shrewsbury goalie Riley MacCausland made the initial save but Pierce had no interest in being turned away and finished her own rebound to put St. Mary’s ahead 2-1.
The goal gave the Spartans the extra energy they needed to finish off the win. Shrewsbury didn’t even gain possession past mid ice to get MacCausland pulled until the final seconds and St. Mary’s hung on to advance to the quarterfinals.
The Spartans (16-2-4) will take on No. 4 Woburn at O’Brien Rink Friday (7:30).
“We’re still playing, which is a great thing,” Pagliuca said. “Woburn brings a lot to the table and they’re a good team. We’re going to enjoy this (Monday) and we’ll get back to work (Tuesday) to prepare for them Friday.”
