LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls hockey team’s scoring propelled it past the Peabody/Lynnfield Tanners 3-1 on Wednesday night at Connery Rink.
Julia Lambert, Jenna Chaplain and Maggie Pierce each had a goal and an assist for the Spartans. Rylee Smith also made 21 saves for the Spartans and Gianna Young and Regan Sullivan provided some quality play on the blue line.
“It was a very competitive game,” said St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca. “Tough game. There wasn’t a lot of room out there. Peabody/Lynnfield came out really strong. I thought they played really aggressively. We were kind of back on our heels a little bit. I was a little disappointed in our compete level the first couple of periods. I thought we picked it up a little bit in the third, but overall Rylee (Smith) played well in net. We did do a nice job of keeping their shots out to the perimeter.”
“Obviously we have a lot of things to work on, but at the end of the day we found a way to come out with the victory,” Pagliuca added.
Catie Kampersal scored the lone goal for the Tanners, which was assisted by Sarah Powers.
The first period was one of adjustments for both sides. Each struggled to find their footing and struggled to maintain possession in the zone.
The dam finally broke for the Spartans with less than two minutes in the first period as Lambert scored for St. Mary’s. The eighth-grader fought hard in front of the net and was able to sneak a shot past Peabody goaltender Audrey Buckley.
Pagliuca said this was a huge goal as he believed that St. Mary’s was outplayed in the first period.
“To go in with a 1-0 lead when you are being outplayed, we will take it,” he said. “Both games have started slow and that’s something we really have to emphasize next Monday against Arlington is to come out faster. We are kind of sitting back and reacting as opposed to pushing the tempo.”
Peabody/Lynnfield was under a lot of pressure as Buckley stopped seven of the eight shots she faced compared to Rylee Smith stopping all three shots on net in the opening stanza.
The second period saw both teams get some opportunistic scoring chances. For the Tanners, the combination of failing to connect on passes and not getting shots on net proved to be costly.
St. Mary’s went on the power play after Powers was sent to the penalty box for hooking with 5:15 left in the second period. The Tanners actually got their best scoring opportunity on the penalty kill but Smith made some fantastic saves to maintain the Spartans’ lead.
Peabody/Lynnfield got a chance to claw back in the game as Gabbie Oakes was sent to the sin bin for tripping. With 1:20 remaining on the power play to start the final period, the Tanners had a great opportunity to even the score, but the Spartans penalty kill did a fantastic job of dispossessing Peabody/Lynnfield and maintaining their lead.
Still, the third period ended up being a flurry of scoring as Chaplain put the Spartans up 2-0 under three minutes into the final stanza. Kampersal bullied her way to a goal with 5:39 left in the game to cut the deficit to one, but Pierce iced the game away with a goal less than 30 seconds later.
Even after the loss, Peabody/Lynnfield head coach Michelle Roach was pleased with the performance of her team.
“I’m happy with the progress my club has made,” she said. “St. Mary’s is a top-three team in the state. We just had a 3-1 game. I feel really good about the way we played and I think I have more positives than negatives.”
Peabody is now 2-1 and faces Shawsheen/Bedford on Saturday while St. Mary’s is 2-0 and plays Arlington on Monday (6).
