LOWELL - Malden Catholic put an exclamation point on its season series with Xaverian yesterday, beating the Hawks, 5-0, at Tsongas Arena in the opening round of the Super 8 tournament.
"We kept it a little more simple and a little more focused on defense," said MC coach Chris Serino. "But, as far as effort goes, that is what we have been seeing all year."
MC got things going in the first period, a period that they dominated, with a goal at 4:22. Andrew Cerretani found paydirt when he took a pass from Tony Serino behind the net and buried the puck.
The Lancers outshot the Hawks, 10-2, in the frame - Xaverian's two coming on the power play. But, Xaverian's defense did the best they could to stay in the game as most of the Lancers' shots came from the perimeter.
The second period was a near mirror image of the first, but this time the Lancers scored on the power play. JP Buckley fired a shot from the top of the circle that Xaverian goalie Kyle MacDonald had to fight off with his blocker. Unfortunately, the rebound bounced right to the stick of Serino and he buried it at 3:45.
Despite outshooting Xaverian through two frames, 22-6, MC still hadn't knocked out its Catholic Conference brethren.
"I was frustrated by missing open nets," said Serino. "We had a ton of chances where we overskated a loose puck with an open net, and so that frustrated me."
MC blew things open in the third period, scoring three times, including two more power-play tallies.
The third marker came on a power play at 6:10 when leading scorer
Malden Catholic went up, 3-0, when Mike Vecchione buried a pass from James Castucci to complete a great 3-on-1 rush at 6:10.
Just a minute later, Vecchione scored his 20th goal of the season, this time with assists by Craig Carbonneau and Brett Biondo.
Joe Zingarelli finished the Lancers' scoring when he walked in along the red line and roofed a shot into the near corner at 9:24.
That fifth goal was the one that finally chased MacDonald, as Brian O'Loughlin came in to finish the game. However, MacDonald was not to be blamed by the coaching staff.
"We were flat, we looked tentative, nervous, and probably scared," said Xaverian coach Dave Spinale. "It could have been 12-0 if it wasn't for Kyle [MacDonald]."
