LYNN — Off to a strong start this season, the St. Mary’s boys hockey team won its first two games before dropping a hard-fought matchup against Archbishop Williams. Now in his third season, coach Matthew Smith said he likes what he has seen from his squad so far and is ready to lead the Spartans through a challenging schedule.
“The first two games were awesome in terms of production,” Smith said. “We scored 12 goals in two games. I can’t remember a time we did that in the last two years I’ve been head coach. The kids are buying into a lot of the things we’re talking about — getting inside the dots, quick attacks to the net and our terminology. A lot of that showed up in those first two games, so it was nice to see.”
Even in the 4-2 loss to Archbishop Williams, Smith said there were positives.
“I would have loved to play Archie not after a 2 1/2 hour bus ride sitting in traffic,” Smith said. “We only had 45 minutes to get ready, which wasn’t ideal. We thought we left early enough, but there were some good moments. It wasn’t like we got dominated.”
One player off to a strong start is Aiden St. Pierre, who leads the team in points through three games.
“I expected him to be a breakout player this year,” Smith said. “He was hurt toward the end of last season, so we didn’t have him for the state tournament. He can really play. He has three goals and two assists through three games.”
St. Pierre skates alongside Cam Marchand and Cole Alexander, both from Saugus.
“It’s a really nice line that we like,” Smith said. “Aiden really commands the puck, and that group has good chemistry.”
Smith also praised Marchand and Alexander individually.
“Marchand is the type of player who belongs at St. Mary’s. He embraces a blue-collar mentality with grit and determination. From a forechecking perspective and doing the small things, he really carries that style,” Smith said. “Cole is a good player who’s going to become a great hockey player. Last year he didn’t make varsity initially, but he proved he belonged. He earned a jersey and worked his way into the lineup. He’s put himself in a good position on that line.”
The Spartans have a great mix of underclassmen and senior leaders. The senior class holds a special place for Smith, who has known several players since they were young.
“We have eight seniors on this team, there are five players that I have been coaching or known since they were little kids. This season means a lot to me. Evan Toto, Stephen Nason, and the two Racki twins Caleb and Finn, I’ve coached these four since they were little kids and it’s been awesome getting to watch them grow,” Smith said. “The other senior JJ Avery is a Lynn kid, I’ve known his dad for a long time. Matthew played with him on the Lynn Youth Hockey Jets teams so I knew him too since he was young.”
Although Smith didn’t know the other three seniors when they were young, he’s known them their entire high school career.
“Colton Carpenter had 16 points last year and as a big 6’2 forward brings us physicality. Zach Guelpa we’re expecting a big season out of him too as a top nine player. Zach is a Garrity Scholar too which is amazing,” Smith said. “Then we have Sal Brogna who’s another senior leader for us. Sal, Zach, and Colton I didn’t know when they were little, but they’re all friends with my son and I’ve known them since they were sophomores when I took over as the coach but I was coaching here when they were freshmen so they’ve known me since they got here.”
The Spartans defense has a lot of quality and depth.
“With the group we have we have three solid lines. We have kids who can skate with these bigger teams. Our top three defenders Kalen Huddle, Avery, and Racki are great,” Smith said. “But we also have the two Iannotti twins, Matthew and Connor, out of Swampscott. Those two sophomores have turned into solid defensemen too.”
St. Mary’s faces a challenging stretch with games against Catholic Memorial, Xaverian and St. John’s Prep — matchups Smith welcomes.
“We lost 1-0 to Xaverian last year, and against St. John’s Prep it was a close game where we had the lead after the first period. We almost beat Pope and tied Hingham,” Smith said. “We know this team can do the same thing and play with bigger teams. I’m excited — we call this part of the schedule the gauntlet — but it’s all about the power rankings. It’s not about wins and losses; with our schedule, we should get into the tournament. It’s about playing really hard games and developing the mentality to handle a faster pace. What we did last year with a similar schedule made us tournament-ready. We could have won that game against Arlington and advanced to the Elite Eight.”
It’s not just Smith who’s ready for this year though, his whole team was committed all offseason in getting better.
“These kids made a huge commitment to work with our personal trainer one night a week, we had a skills guy come in to work with our players. But the team got together on their own in St. Mary’s gym and ran for 10 weeks every Sunday night,” Smith said. “That was one thing I noticed in the first three games. I was talking to my assistant coaches Doug Surrette, Don Collins, Brendan Mageary and I mentioned that our kids are in really good shape. We’re not seeing kids coming to the bench sucking wind. I think when I looked at the game against Arlington last year, the one thing I noticed was they were in better shape than us. We’re really focused on what we can do to be better at closing out games.”
St. Mary’s travels to Catholic Memorial on Sunday for an 8 p.m. puck drop.
