PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Eric Pedro keeps the puck on his stick as he skates toward the net.
By KATIE MORRISON
LYNN — St. Mary’s boys’ hockey coach Mark Lee’s 400th career win is going to have to wait.
With eight seconds left in a tie game, Austin Prep’s Ryan Verrier fired a shot that gave No. 3 Austin Prep a 5-4 lead and eventual win over No. 5 St. Mary’s, Saturday night at Connery Rink.
Early in the game, it looked like the Spartans were in complete control. Within the first five minutes of play, St. Mary’s sprinted out to a 3-0 lead.
Dante Maribito struck first for the Spartans on a short-handed goal with an assist from Eric Pedro. Pedro added a goal of his own soon after (assists from Marc and Mike Zampanti) and just a minute and a half later, Ryan Turenne extended the lead off assists from Damon Maribito and Mike Desmond.
After a tough 7-1 loss against BC High on Wednesday, the hot start was a much-needed one for the Spartans.
“I just think that they really came out on fire after the tough game last week against BC High,” said St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee. “They came out very strong, in the first five minutes it was just total domination by us. You know, unfortunately, we took a couple of tough calls and were short-handed and we let them back into the game.”
The lead slipped away almost as quickly as it was built up. Austin Prep coach Louis Finocchiaro called a time out to regroup, and less than two minutes later, Patrick Lundy buried a shot from the slot to get the Cougars on the board.
Before the end of the period, both Alex Maffeo and Nick Cafarelli would find the back of the net for Austin Prep to even up the game at three.
For all the action that the first period boasted, the second period was a quiet one. Both teams had opportunities, but neither capitalized until Peter Burns knocked in the go-ahead goal for Austin Prep midway through the stanza.
The Spartans came out with a ton of energy in the third, and dominated play for the majority of the period. Conor Foley scored the equalizer with assists from Dante Maribito and Kyle Oullette early in the period. The Cougars didn’t get off their first shot on net in the third until more than halfway through the period. The Spartans would send 17 shots at the net in the period compared to only four from Austin Prep. But it was only the last shot of the game that mattered.
Austin Prep’s Louis Finocchiaro pushed the puck out of the neutral zone and into the Spartans’ end with the remaining seconds ticking off the clock. Burns picked it up and found Verrier, who put the game away.
“They do a good job of not giving us a second opportunity,” Lee said of Austin Prep. “They’re an excellent team and take advantage of mistakes and at the end of the period, we made a couple of bad mistakes and gave them the game-winning shot and that was a back breaker.”
The Cougars have now dealt the Spartans two of their three losses on the season, with Austin Prep topping St. Mary’s, 3-2, in the first round of the Serino Classic in December. With Bishop Fenwick next on the schedule, the Spartans need to regroup after back-to-back losses.
“The season is too short to feel sorry for ourselves,” said Lee. “We know we let one slip away and we need to learn from our mistakes and be a better team going down the stretch. I’m very proud of this team. Tonight, we made some mistakes but there was never any question when it comes to the effort.”