LYNN — The St. Mary’s boys hockey team has played in close games all season long, which — according to the players and coaches — made what happened Saturday night not that unexpected.
After battling back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game up with three minutes to go in the game, the No. 15 Spartans then scored with three minutes left in overtime to take down No. 18 Chelmsford, 3-2, in a Division 1 tournament Round of 32 game at Connery Rink.
“We’ve been in this situation a lot so far and we always know that we can battle back,” said junior defenseman Luke Bott, a Salem native who scored the game-winning goal with a wicked one-timer off of a rebound. “This group just continued to plug away and kept fighting and fighting, and we knew that eventually we were going to get that goal.”
“This is an incredible group of guys, one of the best that we’ve coached here,” said Spartans assistant coach Matthew Smith. “They come in every day, they work hard, they never complain and they always fight in games. They’re never out of it.”
In addition to Bott, junior Brady Bullock (Lynn) and freshman Cam McGonagle (Danvers) each scored one goal in the win. Senior Christian Iacoviello (Lynnfield), senior Jake Desmarais (Nahant), sophomore Daniel Domeniconi (Swampscott) and sophomore Evan O’Heir (Boxford) each had one assist, while senior goalie Owen Giangrande (Marblehead) notched 18 saves to earn the win in net.
It was an auspicious start for St. Mary’s, who fell behind almost immediately in this game when Jack Pelkey knocked home a one-timer for Chelmsford to give the Lions a 1-0 lead less than seconds into the game.
After the Spartans fought well for the remainder of the period and evened things out in the effort category, Chelmsford was able to double up its lead with just 34 seconds left in the frame when Adam Lizine found the back of the net.
Almost the entire second period went by without incident, all those St. Mary’s did have to fight off a treacherous five on three situation when the Spartans were called for three penalties in a two-minute span. After finally killing off all the penalties, the Spartans were able to get on the board and cut the deficit in half when McGonagle scored with 14.9 seconds to play in the second.
The third period was much of the same story, as the Spartans battled hard and continued to put pressure on the Chelmsford net. That pressure finally came to a head with 1:59 to go in the game, when Bullock took a pass from Domeniconi and ripped a shot into the back of the net to tie the game up at 2-2.
Then, an incredible sequence happened at the end of the game that almost resulted in a win for the Spartans. After Chelmsford took a penalty and put St. Mary’s on the powerplay, the Spartans pushed hard in the final two minutes to try to get that winning goal. With time winding down in the period, the Spartans ripped a shot on net that bounced off Chelmsford goalie Mark Bierwirth and found its way into the net as the buzzer sounded. The Spartans erupted, the Lions collapsed to the ice and the sellout crowd at Connery Rink nearly took the building down.
But all of that bedlam was quickly put to rest when one of the officials skated to center ice and waved his arms that the goal was no good. The puck had not crossed the goal line before the buzzer sounded.
“That’s a lot of emotion in that moment, and that’s a tough thing to come back from sometimes,” said Smith. “But as young as this group is, they’re a cool group of guys. The idea was to just reset, focus on the overtime and get ready for some 4-on-4 hockey.”
The two teams battled evenly through the first five minutes of the overtime period before St. Mary’s made its move. The Spartans dumped the puck into the offensive zone, chased it down and took possession. St. Mary’s flicked a shot on net that Bierwirth kicked away, but the rebound bounced out long and went right into the slot.
Bott was waiting right there, and he skated right into a clean one-timer that snuck just under the crossbar for the game=winning goal.
“When I saw the puck come out there like that, I just knew I had to take the shot,” said Bott. “The goalie had just made a save and he was still down, and I had a clean look at it.”
St. Mary’s (11-7-5) will now move on to the Round of 16, where the Spartans will face off against one of the best teams in the state in No. 2 Xaverian on the road at Canton Ice House Monday evening (5).
“We’re looking forward to that game,” said Smith. “We know that Xaverian is an incredibly strong team and they play in one of the toughest conferences in the state. We’ll certainly be an underdog, but these guys relish that underdog mentality. Not many people have picked this team to do what they’ve done so far this year, so Monday won’t be anything different.”
