The Spartans’ boys hockey team didn’t bow down to a much bigger, and more physical, Hingham team. St. Mary’s (9-0-2) left Connery Rink with a 1-1 overtime draw to remain unbeaten on Monday afternoon.
When the going gets tough, St. Mary’s gets tougher. The Harbormen played with physicality and, according to Spartans’ head coach Mark Lee, they’re one of the best teams in the state.
“Year after year, Hingham is known for their big, strong, and physical teams,” Lee said. “I was so proud of the way our guys responded [to the physicality]. We got punched and we punched back.”
“There was no fear shown from this team. They all battled. They did not care how big or how old they were. It was really nice to see,” Lee said.
Before any team could register a hit, the Spartans were already on the scoreboard 15 seconds into the game. Senior forward Brady Bullock handled the rebound and fired the puck home before the Hingham goalie reacted to put St. Mary’s ahead 1-0 in front of the home faithful.
“We knew we needed to show up with some energy today. To score that early goal gave our young team a lot of confidence, and I think that helped us,” Lee said.
After the Spartans took the early lead, the game started to become physical. The Spartans were a man down after a penalty was called against them with six minutes remaining in the period. Hingham capitalized on the advantage and slotted home a power play goal.
“We got into some penalty issues and we did a good job killing them. Unfortunately, their one goal was a power play goal,” Lee said.
The goal sparked some life into the Harbormen as they dominated possession for the rest of the first and second periods. Despite having the majority of possession, they could not get past freshman goalie Brady Baldassare (38 saves). Baldassare had himself a game, denying everything Hingham threw at him to keep the Spartans level.
“Having a goaltender like we do [to] make 38 saves as a freshman is something special,” Lee said.
One of his crucial saves of the afternoon was in overtime when there was less than one minute remaining, Hingham was on a two-on-one break, but was denied a game-winning goal after Baldassare stood his ground and deflected the puck away from his net.
“I’m so proud of this young team,” Lee said. “Hingham is a real veteran team loaded with juniors and seniors. We are a very young team and we battled from the drop of the puck until the final buzzer.”
“I thought five-on-five – it was a great high school hockey game,” Lee said.
St. Mary’s is a young team but continues to impress, having yet to taste defeat. The Spartans will next take the ice when they travel to Winchester with a scheduled start of 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
