Catino, Spartans shut out Peabody, 2-0
LYNN >> As hard as it might be to believe, it had been a decade since the St. Mary’s girls hockey team had made it to the state semifinals.
On Wednesday night at Connery Rink, the topseeded Spartans finally got that monkey off their back, but it sure didn’t come easily.
First-period goals from Tia Picardi and Jenna Champlain staked the Spartans to a 2-0 lead. Goaltender Ang Catino did the rest as she turned aside all 19 Peabody shots she faced to turn aside the upset bid from the No. 8 seeded Tanners.
“It sure wasn’t pretty at times but we sure will take it,” St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca said. “Peabody sure made it tough on us but our kids buckled down and got it done.”
The Tanners (18-5-0) held St. Mary’s (24-1-0) to only 14 shots but couldn’t take advantage of four power plays, three of which came in a second period where they held an 11-2 shots on goal advantage.
“We didn’t do a real good job of getting pucks to the net,” Peabody coach Michelle Roach said. “They do a really good job of clearing things out in front of the net and we couldn’t get to a lot of rebounds.”
It was a rebound that led the way to the game’s opening goal midway through the first period.
St. Mary’s defenseman Vanessa Hall kept a loose puck in at the right point and fed it across to Gianna Young for a blast on net that Alise Mutti kicked out. But Picardi was right there to net the rebound for a 1-0 lead.
“That first goal was huge. It let everyone calm down and get the jitters out,” Pagliuca said.
It stayed 1-0 until late in the first when Champlain picked the pocket of a defender, cut across the slot and ripped a shot over Mutti’s blocker to make it 2-0.
Peabody came out with renewed intensity at the start of the second and got an early power play for its efforts. But Catino turned aside several quality chances as the Spartan penalty killers did the job.
They would get two more chances to showcase their talents in the period as they killed off the penalty each time. It wasn’t without some drama as Catie Kampersal fanned on a rebound with a wide open goal in front of her late in the period.
The Tanners kept charging in the third and again had a chance to make it a one-goal game but Ella Chase saw a rebound hop over her stick with Catino down.
It was the last quality chance that the Tanners got as the Spartan defense clamped things down in the final minutes.
“I’m so proud of my kids. This was the best last chance to play in this building for our seniors and they wanted to make the most of it,” Pagliuca said.