Garden City Wings ‘Deep Sixed' By Massapequa

Two weeks ago, the Garden City Wings held the powerful Massapequa Chiefs to a season-low three goals despite missing three of their top players.

This time, Garden City was at full strength as the teams met in the rematch Friday night at the Bethpage Community Center and were deadlocked with Massapequa 3-3 heading into the third period. The fans in the bleachers were expecting an epic final 15 minutes, but instead witnessed one of the most lopsided sessions of the season.

The Wings surrendered six goals in the third period, including two on the power play, en route to a 9-4 loss to the Chiefs. The game was a makeup from the original Jan. 12 contest that was postponed because of snow.

The teams are heading into opposite directions entering the final week of the regular season. Garden City has allowed 36 goals in dropping five of its last six contests while Massapequa continues to roll by recording its 11th straight victory.

“(We have to) bear down and play defense and have the forwards come back and pick up men,” Wings blueliner Elias Georgas said.

J.P. Burnside, who missed the teams’ first meeting of the season on Jan. 21, scored all for goals for the Wings, including a natural hat trick in the first period.

Garden City, which was coming off an 8-6 loss to Syosset on Wednesday, started off slow and immediately fell behind 2-0 just 2:06 into the game. But 27 seconds later, Burnside began the comeback by firing a shot from the right side past Massapequa goalie Mike Mottola.

Burnside knotted the game 29 seconds later, this time with a shot from the left side. With just under four minutes left in the first, Captain Albert Markopoulos cut up the right side and deked a Chiefs defenseman before shuffling the puck to Burnside, who completed his hat trick with an easy tap-in at the left post.

“It was definitely tough,” Burnside said. “I thought I played pretty good out there. Usually, I don’t get a lot of scoring chances, but today it kind of worked out. I just think if the puck bounced our way, the game would have been a lot different.”

Massapequa got the lone goal of the second period when Bobby Oldmixon one-timed a pass from Joey Bochichio past Garden City goalie David Wax.

The Oldmixon-Bochichio combo also ignited the Chiefs’ explosive third period. Twenty seconds into the session, Bochichio’s rush down the slot was thwarted by Wax, but Oldmixon fired home the rebound while trailing the play for a power-play marker.

“(It deflated us) a little bit,” Georgas said. “We were like ‘we don’t want this to happen again like last game’ and it kept on going downhill from there.”  

Phil Armato made it 5-3 at 4:38 of the third. Bochichio increased the lead to three with his wrister from the right slot and Nicholas Mangone tallied from in-front off a feed from Christopher Zito 72 seconds later.

“They were really good at cycling the puck down low and getting into position,” Georgas said. “They were finding the open guy.”

Oldmixon and Burnside traded goals 15 seconds apart before Mangone capped the scoring with a power-play tally with 1:25 left. Burnside had been penalized for hooking.

“The team was really flying around out there and getting a lot of scoring chances,” Burnside said. “I just think we got some bad calls and the puck wasn’t really bouncing our way. They had some fluke goals, but everyone played hard. The short bench got to us. They showed up on the bus with three full lines and we had a line-and-a half so I think that’s what really got to us.”

Mottola made 16 of his 24 saves over the final two periods, while Wax made 36 stops in defeat.

Garden City concludes the regular season Monday against Bellmore-Merrick at Newbridge Arena, with the opening faceoff slated for 9:25 p.m. The playoffs begin Sunday, Feb. 13, at Long Beach.

Download the movie