Garrett White Goal Leads MC in Tough Win Over St. Mary's of Lynn

LYNN—It was a classic case of quantity versus quality; an epic battle between volume and value.

Last night at Connery Memorial Rink, quantity came out on top.

The top-ranked Malden Catholic hockey team needed 55 shots on net to wrest a 3-2 victory from the hands of No. 3 St. Mary’s of Lynn and senior goalie Donald Hesse, outshooting the Spartans 55-11 in the process—a staggering ratio of 5-to-1.

Hesse was nearly flawless between the pipes for the home team—making an unbelievable 52 saves during the tough defeat—and did as good a job against the all-world MC first line as any net-minder has this season.

Despite enjoying such a clear-cut advantage on the offensive end, MC head coach Chris Serino decried his team’s lack of precision in the finishing department.

“We had 55 shots on net,” he said. “I’d like to have a dollar for every one we missed...we probably missed the net with another 50...we didn’t put the puck in the net. We had plenty of chances to do it...we had great movement on the power play, but we just couldn’t finish.”

St. Mary’s of Lynn’s three losses this year have come only to the teams right above them in the rankings. The Spartans have lost twice to Malden Catholic and once to Hingham—the No. 1 and 2 ranked teams respectively.

While the Lancers (13-2-2) enjoyed their typical dominance in possession, the St. Mary’s of Lynn (12-3-3) defenders did a good job in disrupting MC’s attacking game, and the result was a slower, more static attack from The Boston Globe’s No. 1 team.

This took away much of Malden Catholic’s advantage in the skating and puck-handling departments. Instead of the aesthetically pleasing tallies that have become the hallmark of the Lancers offense this season, the visitors goals all came from structured plays, and were much more workman-like in nature. 

“I thought we played pretty good,” said Serino.”Give them credit, they’re a very good team, they played hard and their goalie was fabulous tonight.”

The Spartans were nothing if not opportunistic last night on their home ice. While they were only able to generate 11 shots on goal, they certainly made the most of them, and gave the Lancers—who beat them 8-0 earlier in the season in Malden—a real run for their money.

“(The Spartans) played hard,” said Serino of his team’s opponent last night. “They’re a good team, and they took advantage of their opportunities.”

The Spartans were first to the scoreboard last night, to the joy of the packed house at Connery Rink, when Brendan Mageary and Bobby Mullins found themselves advancing on the MC net with only one defender in position to contest them. Mageary and Mullins executed a nifty give-and-go maneuver, and Mageary slipped the puck past Malden Catholic goalie Pat Young (9 saves) to give the home team an early 1-0 lead with 10:16 left in the opening frame.

The Lancers would peg St. Mary’s back a little less than eight minutes later, when their first-line produced a nifty give-and-go of its own. University of New Hampshire recruit Mike Vecchione and line-mate Brendan Collier combined with sophomore center Ryan Fitzgerald (1 goal, 1 assist) to create the chance, and Collier took a picture-perfect crossing pass from Vecchione (2 assists), and flicked the puck past the thoroughly beaten Hesse for the equalizer with 2:46 left in the first period.

The second stanza began with the Lancers decidedly on the attack. Just under three minutes into the period, a Malden Catholic breakaway very nearly gave them the lead, but the attackers went in just a little to hard, and crashed into the net, knocking it from its moorings, just as it appeared that Hesse had been beaten.

MC was absolutely peppering the Spartans’ net with shots at the beginning of the period, and St. Mary’s senior stopper looked as though he would will his team to victory through the force of his steadfast performance. The Lancers produced a plethora of chances through the first six or seven minutes of the second, but Hesse was up to the challenge, stopping everything the ultra-talented MC first-line could throw at him. 

“(Hesse) is a good goalie,” said Serino. “We got eight on him last time we played, so I’m sure that was in the back of his mind...but again, we just missed way too many chances.”

With 7:56 left in the penultimate period however, Fitzgerald didn’t miss.

The son of former NHL’er Tom Fitzgerald, MC’s center came on to the puck at the right face-off circle and loosed a slap-shot that would have made his old man proud. The wicked blast was past Hesse before he even knew what happened, beating him high on the glove side.

“Right before that, Vecchione had an open net and it hit the post,” said Serino. “We went the other way with it, to Fitzgerald, and that was it.”

Just three and a half minutes later, the Lancers made it a two-goal lead, when a scramble in front of the St. Mary’s of Lynn goal resulted in an easy tap in for senior forward Garrett White. The unassisted tally, coming with 4:22 left in the second, gave the Lancers a 3-1 lead that looked much more unsurmountable when combined with the staggering shot differential.

Not so fast.

With 2:35 left in the period, a poor pass over the blue line resulted in a turnover and a breakaway for the Spartans. Chris Surette fired the puck in on Young, and the offering beat the MC keeper and rattled around the goal post a bit before finally dropping over the line, cutting the lead to 3-2.

It looked like anybody’s game heading into the final frame, but the Lancers’ defense was up to the task of closing out the hard-won victory.

“We turned the puck over way too much,” said Serino. “We had complete control of the game. We turned the puck over at the blue line, a puck we should have never turned over...from that point on though,  thought we dominated the game.”