Seward sparks Winchester

Springfield Cathedral is toppled in overtime

Winchester's T.J. Hickey (24) celebrates after beating Springfield Cathedral goalie Stefan Audet to give the Sachems a 1-0 lead in the first period. (Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

BILLERICA - Michael Seward and Winchester had to work overtime last night, but the extra work paid off with a 3-2 victory over Springfield Cathedral in a preliminary round matchup of the Division 1A state hockey tournament at the Chelmsford Forum.

"This is like winning the golden ticket to see Wonka's factory," said Winchester coach John Messuri.

Winchester won't have much time to enjoy the view, though. The Sachems advanced to a first-round matchup against Catholic Memorial Sunday in Lowell.

Seward's winning goal came at 2:13 with Springfield Cathedral down a man after being hit with a hooking call just 48 seconds into overtime. Winchester took a timeout and came away with the winner when Tim Mitropoulos found Seward on a backdoor pass. Peter Troiano also got an assist on the play, his second of the game.

"In the timeout all we said was back door, back door, back door," Seward said. "When we went for it, it was there."

After a slow start to the game, Winchester's offense got on track midway through the first period. T.J. Hickey scored off a rebound of a Kevin Carson wrister to make it 1-0, and Carson quickly gave the Sachems a 2-0 lead when he gathered a bouncing puck off the backboard and beat Stefan Audet.

Springfield Cathedral cut the deficit to 2-1 with just 30 seconds left in the period when Dan Fenton converted a power-play goal off a rebound of a Brendan Moore shot.

The Sachems' line of Seward, Bobby Leo, and Sam Novicki peppered Audet in the second, but he came up with 11 saves to keep Springfield Cathedral in the game.

The Panthers pulled into a 2-2 tie at 3:12 of the third period on Stephen Metayer's goal.

Senior captains Paul Conceison and Brian Hanafin scored two goals apiece and Sean Duffy had three assists as Burlington rolled to a 6-1 victory over Arlington Catholic in last night's other preliminary round game.

"We wanted to suffocate them and didn't want to let up any chances," Hanafin said. "We fought for all the loose pucks and controlled the game from the start."

Burlington will face Needham Sunday at Tsongas Arena.