Garden City Wings Varsity Ice Hockey Outflies Lynbrook 7-2

Written by Ellen Feinstein

Since Garden City's loss in last year's semi-final playoffs to Lynbrook, Coach Rich Peck wanted the Wings to emerge victorious against Lynbrook the next time they were matched up.

However, for that game, the Garden City team was to be short-benched on players. To overcome this, Coach Rich invited Alex Feinstein, one of his goalies, to play out while Matt Lobasso, the resident goalie on the Wings, closely guarded the net.

During the first half of period one, both teams found themselves scoreless. Finally, powerhouse Post (#27) broke Lynbrook's shutout unassisted, with 7 minutes left on the clock, followed by (#97) Junior Matt Borges, unassisted, with 4:48 minutes left.

Lynbrook had nothing to answer them.

In the second period, Lynbrook managed to break Garden City's shutout a few seconds off the opening face off. Soon after Joe Giarraputo (#29) retaliated with an assist from Senior Josh Oventhal (#91). Joe King stepped up his plays and scored twice with 7:40 minutes, assisted by Borges, and 3:56 minutes left in the period assisted by Oventhal and Borges.

Starting the third period already down 5 goals against, Lynbrook became noticeably aggravated as they made futile attempts to fire more shots at Garden City, but Wings goalie Lobasso kept denying them of goals.

Meanwhile teammates Alex Feinstein (#39), Blake O'Neill (#44) and Anthony Mercandetti (#21) kept redirecting the puck back to Lynbrook's zone, which allowed Shawn Post to score again a few minutes later, unassisted.

Completing his hat trick, King scored a final shot unassisted at Lynbrook with 8:32 left.

The remainder of the game, Lynbrook was so far behind they lost hope while Garden City just ran down the clock. With only a few seconds left, Lynbrook squeaked out their last goal against the Wings, but it was not enough to overcome their loss.

In total, both teams had almost equal numbers of shots on net - Lynbrook had 28 while Garden City had 27.

Flying in the face of Lynbrook's almost perfect record so far in the Nassau County High School Hockey League, the Garden City Wings emerged victorious with a score of 7-2, leaving Lynbrook with a huge upset.

As a result, this win has moved Garden City's varsity team up two positions into the fifth place slot in the league, and they expect to continue progressing as they become a formidable challenge to the other teams.

For a schedule of Garden City Wings games and practices, click here. Garden City faces off against Wantagh/Seaford Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. at the Bethpage Community Park Ice Rink, located at 1001 Stewart Avenue (Stewart Avenue & Cherry Avenue), Bethpage, NY 11714.

All photos by Michele King