NEWBURYPORT – For the fourth time in as many years, St. Mary’s will play for the Gulazian Division championship in the Newburyport Bank Ice Hockey Classic on Friday (7) at Graf Rink.But the Spartans’ road to the final certainly wasn’t easy, as Lincoln-Sudbury took a 1-0 lead early in the third period before St. Mary’s roared back with three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 win.”Lincoln-Sudbury is a good team,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “It was a battle and I’m proud that we battled back because of the quality of team they have.”The Warriors (10-7-2) finished second in the MVC/DCL Div. 2 race to Tewksbury and are heading for the Division 2 North tournament. And for a long time on Tuesday, it looked like they might pull this one out over the Spartans (11-7-2).For two periods, L-S goaltender Liam McInerney had befuddled the Spartans, making several clutch saves to keep the game scoreless. At the other end, Frank McCormick was just as immense, stopping all 11 shots that he faced through two periods.But late in the second, St. Mary’s freshman forward Kyle Larson was given a 4:00 major for cross-checking after Ryan Sutherland went headfirst into the boards.The Warriors took advantage of that opportunity just 69 seconds into the third when defenseman Evan Tonkel’s rising shot from the right point sailed through a screen and over McCormick’s shoulder for a 1-0 lead.L-S still had 2:53 of penalty time against Martin to score more goals, but the St. Mary’s penalty killers did a fantastic job, holding the Warriors to just one more shot on net.”For us to kill a 4:00 penalty to start the third and come down and respond the way we did, I’m proud of the way we came out,” Lee said.The big kill gave St. Mary’s a boost of momentum and John Baldwin only helped to bolster that cause at 4:13 when he slammed home a Corey Lee rebound to tie the game at 1-1.And it looked like 1-1 was going to be how regulation ended as neither defense gave an inch. But with 2:25 left, the Warriors made their first, and only, mistake.Zak Borowski picked off a Tonkel pass at the blue line and feathered a saucer pass to Baldwin, who outwaited McInerney and tucked the puck around his left pad for goal No. 21 on the year and a 2-1 lead.Baldwin’s 21 goals put him third on the North Shore in that category. Lynnfield’s John Baldwin leads the way with 24 while Revere’s Chris Mastropietro is second with 22.St. Mary’s then had to hang on for dear life as the Warriors pulled McInerney for an extra attacker with 1:54 remaining, but couldn’t get anything through to McCormick. Tommy Adams put the game on ice for St. Mary’s with an empty-netter at 14:39.”We’re very excited to have the opportunity to play in the final again,” Lee said. “We never quit (Tuesday) and we got stronger as the game went on.”In the other Gulazian semifinal, Danvers got a test from a 5-11-3 Haverhill team, but Steve Deroche and Kyle Larson scored third-period goals to boost the Falcons to a 4-2 win.”Haverhill played hard and that’s a credit to them,” Danvers coach Kevin Brown said. “But we battled hard in the third.”The Hillies took a 1-0 lead early in the first on Pat Roberts’ goal, but Danvers (11-6-2) responded with two goals in 80 seconds late in the frame.Chris Kontos, newly elevated to the second line, scored his first varsity goal at 12:10 before Troy Thibodeau picked up his 19th marker of the year, assisted by Steve Kontos and Jake Korthas, at 13:30 to make it 2-1.Haverhill fought back to tie the game at 2-2 after two on Roberts’ second goal of the season. But Danvers retook the lead at 2:15 of the third on Deroche’s shorthanded tally. Larson then put things out of reach with a blast from the high slot at 8:37.”We talked about how important it is to win going into the tournament,” Brown said. “Last year, we came up here and dropped two. So this is a big win for us.”