PEABODY– An early lead fueled the St. Mary’s boys hockey team to a 4-2 win over Catholic Central League rival Bishop Fenwick Saturday night at James McVann-Louis O’Keefe Memorial Skating Rink.
Colin Reddy led the Spartans with two goals.
“Colin’s our go-to guy,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “That gives him 14 goals in nine games. That’s really impressive at this level. It’s because of his hard work. He’s a tenacious player, he leads by example and he never stops.”
Brady Carpenter scored once and logged one assist. Nick Napolitano scored one goal, while Damon Maribito and Kyle Ouellette each dished an assist. Spartans goalie Joe Purtell made 18 saves.
The Crusaders dug themselves in a 4-0 hole early in the third period before lighting the lamp twice in the final minutes. Trey Deloury and Derek DelVecchio scored a goal apiece, while Nick Muzi and Matt Moniz each had one assist.
“We came out flat in the first few minutes and it cost us,” Fenwick coach Jim Quinlan said. “We made some mistakes that cost us. They scored two goals right off the bat but we didn’t quit. We outplayed them in the second period. St. Mary’s got penalties but our problem is we can’t score power plays. We had a lot of opportunities and if we put them in it’s a different game.”
Penalties were the theme of the night as 17 of them were committed. St. Mary’s was whistled for 11 and Fenwick was responsible for six.
Neither coach was pleased with the time spent in the box.
“(Fenwick’s) not a bad team,” Lee said. “I’m just frustrated that we’re a much better team than we showed. We didn’t play with a lot of discipline. We can’t play any team in our league or the teams we play and play half the game shorthanded.”
“We’ve been pretty good with penalties,” Quinlan said, “but because this was a rivalry game emotions were high. Those penalties hurt us. We have to stay out of the box so our players don’t get tired.”
The Spartans came out firing early and often in the first period. Just 90 seconds into the game, Reddy skated up the ice, wiggled his way through Fenwick’s defense and cashed in on a one-on-one with Fenwick goalie Jake Moniz to put St. Mary’s on the board. Carpenter added a shorthanded goal three minutes later and Napolitano followed suit on a power play, giving the Spartans a 3-0 lead with 9:50 left in the period. That’s where it stayed at the first intermission.
“I was happy with energy when we took the ice,” Lee said. “I thought we dominated the first seven, eight minutes of the game. From that point on though we fell into some lack of discipline situations and took some bad penalties, which kept us from moving forward.”
St. Mary’s was whistled for three penalties in the second period but Fenwick couldn’t get anything going for itself.
“We’ve been working on our power play,” Quinlan said. “With those opportunities on the power plays, if we score it’s a different game. We scored goals at the end but it was too late. We should’ve had them in the second period. Shame on us, we had the chances. We should’ve put them in.
“Once we start putting the puck in the net we’re a different team. Hopefully we can turn that around because our goal’s to get into the (state) tournament. We need seven more wins and we need more goals.”
The Spartans held their 3-0 lead until Reddy found the back of the net for his second goal of the night, this time shorthanded, with 12:06 to play in the third period. Penalties took over from there, with both teams falling into sloppy spurts of play. St. Mary’s found itself in the box six times in the third period and Fenwick made it count. Deloury lit the lamp on a 5-on-3 with 4:52 remaining. DelVecchio scored to make it a 4-2 game with 16 seconds to go but Fenwick’s rally was too little too late.
The Spartans (9-1) host Williams Wednesday (6) in another CCL clash. The Crusaders (3-6) travel to Winthrop Thursday (6:10) for a non-conference tilt.