LYNN — The No. 1 seed in the tournament, three conference All-Stars announced, and now, a 6-0 win in the first round of the Division I state tournament against Medford. Well, that’s not a bad week for St. Mary’s girls hockey.
“Any time you can win a tournament game, that’s a great start,” St. Mary’s head coach Frank Pagliuca said. “I’m happy for us [and] I thought we came out relatively strong.”
Relatively strong, indeed. St. Mary’s scored twice in the first five minutes to begin tournament play in style. Senior captain Jenna Chaplain – the Catholic Central’s Most Valuable Player – showed why with a beautiful wrister off the left post and in to get things started (1-0).
“You’ve got to know where she is when she’s on the ice,” Pagliuca said. “She does it all for us; she’s one of our big leaders on the ice and we’re lucky to have her.”
Fellow senior and assistant captain Amanda Forziati followed two minutes later with a tap-in goal off a centering pass. The tic-tac goal put the Spartans ahead 2-0 with 10:13 remaining in the first.
Medford struggled to establish possession, losing battles in the neutral zone and repeatedly turning the puck over. Medford drew two penalties on the Spartans, but to no avail as the period ended 3-0 in favor of the hosts with Maggie Pierce scoring the third goal.
Good teams don’t stop. Courtesy of a Haylie Grossmann snipe, a Kelly Lovett tap-in, and another goal from Gabbi Oakes, the Spartans’ lead doubled to 6-0 by the second intermission.
“Everyone contributed, and that’s what we want in a tournament game,” Pagliuca said.
Pagliuca said his team did a better job of picking its spots as the game went on.
[We did] better moving the puck,” Pagliuca said. I thought our shot selection after the first period improved.” Pagliuca said.
St. Mary’s goalie Ang Catino wasn’t tested often, but when she was, she passed. With 4:20 remaining in the second period, she went right to left to make a pad save and keep Medford blanked.
Despite the onslaught, St. Mary’s committed five penalties after 40 minutes, something Pagliuca wants to see changed.
“Too many penalties… we’ve got to be a little bit more disciplined,” Pagliuca said.
The scoreboard never changed from that point on. Medford’s seventh grade goalie Erin Alves impressed with several key saves in the third period, keeping things from getting ugly as St. Mary’s continued to dominate the time of possession category.
“I thought Medford played hard and I thought their goalie played a great game,” Pagliuca said.
Now, it’s on to No. 17 Bishop Fenwick as the Crusaders held on to defeat Plymouth 2-1 in overtime on Wednesday.
St. Mary’s swept Fenwick in the regular season for two wins, outscoring the Crusaders 11-1 over the span. That said, as they say in the world of playoff hockey, you never know.
“We’ve got to play better than we did tonight,” Pagliuca said.
