LYNN — St. Mary’s boys hockey team moved to 2-0 on Wednesday after a convincing 4-1 win against Westford Academy at Connery Rink.
It wasn’t the best of starts for the Spartans, as Westford Academy got on the board first with 5:48 remaining in the first period.
However, just three minutes later, senior captain Cam McGonagle equalized for St. Mary’s. Right after a face-off, the puck found McGonagle in the middle of the offensive zone. His quick wrister saw the puck hit the back of the net.
Both teams went into the first intermission tied, 1-1.
St. Mary’s head coach Matt Smith said he told his guys they could play better than they did in the first period, and did they ever. The Spartans dominated the second period, pouring in three goals to take a commanding 4-1 lead. McGonagle, Cam Marchand, and Stephen Nason did the goal-scoring honors.
“I thought we did a really good job responding, and then after that, I thought our forecheck was really unreal tonight,” Smith said. “They had trouble bringing it out of their own net. We had 24 shots in the second period and 48 total. That’s a dominating performance as they only had 20 shots on net, so we doubled them in shots.”
A few individuals stuck out to Smith, none more than McGonagle.
“He missed our first game (ankle injury), but he’s our leader. He’s a big powerhouse winger and you’ve got sophomore Chase Collins on that line as a playmaker. I thought it was really good to have Cam out there and him grabbing two goals,” Smith said. “Also, the Nason line with assistant captain Nick Thornton, Stephen Nason, and Aiden St. Pierre had a great game. We agreed as coaches, tenacious-wise, that was our best line out there tonight. They were unreal.”
The Spartans boast plenty of experience, which is something Smith enjoys having at his disposal.
“I thought we were the faster team. We have 17 juniors and seniors on this team and I’m loving coaching them. This is how practices have been all year,” he said. “They’re fast, they’re ready, they’re into it every single day. I don’t have to say much as a coach because they know all of our systems and they know what we do.”
Now 2-0, Smith is gearing up for St. Mary’s first league game against Archbishop Williams on Saturday (7:40 p.m.).
“I think our defense looks good. We’ve got Smitty (Matthew Smith Jr., 19 saves) in net and we have let up only three goals in two games, so that’s a pretty good start,” Smith said. “We have a huge test on Saturday night against a league opponent in Archbishop Williams down in Canton. That will be a big test for us and we’ll see how we do.”
