LYNN — The No. 2 St. Mary’s girls hockey team had to come back twice during Saturday afternoon’s Division 1 showdown, but escaped No. 18 Winchester 3-2 in overtime. The Spartans improved to 19-3-2 and punched their Round-of-8 ticket.
With 31 seconds remaining in four-on-four overtime, seventh grader Effie Parsons scored the game-winning goal for the fans at Connery Rink.
“Effie, to win the game, was incredible. She’s been one of our better players over the last couple of weeks,” said St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca. “She’s only a seventh grader, but to have that confidence . . . she had a tremendous game today.”
But it wasn’t easy.
First to nearly every puck through two periods, Winchester was rewarded with the game’s first goal, courtesy of freshman Caroline McGowan.
The Spartans equalized with Annabelle Collins scoring midway through the second period. Unfortunately for the hosts, less than two minutes later, Millie McDonald netted a bar-down goal to snatch the lead back for Winchester.
In the third period, you could say the Spartans started to play like the No. 2 seed in the state.
“Winchester, they match up really well against us. They play very physically and they’re aggressive,” Pagliuca said. “I thought [for] the first two periods, they were beating us to the puck and winning the battles. I think our kids responded. In the third period, they realized their season was on the line and they had to compete hard and I’m very proud of them.”
Trailing by a goal with 11:26 remaining, St. Mary’s Alyssa Norden picked up a loose puck and was one-on-one with Winchester’s goalie. Norden made no mistake and found the back of the net to knot the game 2-2.
“Alyssa’s one of our best players and she responded. I’m proud of her,” Pagliuca said. “She’s matured a lot as a player in terms of not letting the frustrations get to her. She came through in a big way to tie the game up.”
The Spartans leaned on defense and goalie Avery Sico in the final minutes, killing a penalty in the process. With 3:30 to go, St. Mary’s Emma Doucette had a shot saved and a rebound from Collins was smothered.
Each side had overtime chances. Sico recorded big saves to keep St. Mary’s season alive.
“I thought Avery was very good today, too. She made some huge saves,” Pagliuca said.
The Spartans may be young on paper, but they’re all “hockey players,” according to Pagliuca.
“We have a bunch of freshmen and middle- schoolers. To have them respond, whether it be Effie, Emma, Victoria (Swim), Annabelle . . . we wouldn’t be here without everybody contributing.”
When asked what his team can take from Saturday’s scare, Pagliuca said it’s about “not getting too high or too low.
“We just need to keep playing. Sometimes, with an inexperienced team, you get frustrated when you’re down a goal and you start to fight it and do things individually.”
St. Mary’s will face No. 10 Reading Memorial (15-2-5) with the date, location, and time to be determined.
