On December 27, the Garden City Varsity Ice Hockey team faced off against Long Beach High School. The Long Beach team is considered one of the top teams in New York State. Offensively they are averaging nine goals a game this season and have two of the top scorers in the league. It didn’t take long for Long Beach to display those offensive skills as they scored on the first shift of the game. Long Beach added two more goals during the first period to take a commanding 3-0 lead.

There was no quitting by Garden City as they continued to skate hard. During the second period, Garden City managed to generate several good scoring opportunities, but could not get one by the Long Beach goaltender. Long Beach scored one goal during the period and held a 4-0 lead after two periods.

During the third period, Long Beach scored four more times for an 8-0 victory. Despite the score, the coaching staff was proud of the Garden City squad as they battled Long Beach for the entire game. This was evident right to the end of the game as the hustling of Scott Mischner and Max Auricchio combined for a great scoring opportunity as the final buzzer sounded. Other forwards working hard for Garden City were Conor Reeves, Conor Sweeney, Aaron Kim, Kevin Betts, Kyle Seiferth, and Nick Greco.

It was an exhausting evening for the Garden City defense as they faced countless odd man rushes during the game. Defensemen Brian Collins, Kevin Rice, Kevin Seiferth, David Brown, and Mike Makris did a good job in minimizing Long Beach shots from the slot area. Goaltenders Tom Hickcox and David Logan split the game in net for Garden City. Both goaltenders played well, each registering 25+ saves for the game.

On Sunday January 2nd, the team rebounded against Jericho High School. The Wings got on the scoreboard ninety seconds into the game as Aaron Kim scored off a pass from Brian Kiernan. Jericho responded with a goal fifty seconds later to tie the game. Shortly afterwards, Conor Sweeney gave the lead back to Garden City scoring a “top shelf” goal off a pass from Tom Rossidis. After a couple of nice saves from goaltender Dave Logan, the Wings exploded for five goals in five minutes to take a 7-1 lead after one period.

The Wings added five more goals during the next two periods and coasted to a 12-2 victory. The wide-open contest featured many positives for the Wings. Goaltenders Dave Logan and Tom Hickcox each played a good game and together combined for 15 saves. Kevin Rice delivered a couple of crushing open ice checks. Great work along the boards by forwards Kevin Betts, Ryan Norell, Conor Sweeney, and Nick Greco. Good overall effort by all fifteen skaters for Garden City, as twelve registered points in the victory: Scott Mischner (1 goal, 3 assists), Kevin Betts, David Brown (1 assist), Brian Collins (2 assists), Nick Greco (1 goal), Aaron Kim (1 goal), Brian Kiernan (4 goals, 1 assist), Mike Makris (1 goal, 1 assist), Ryan Norell (1 goal, 2 assists), Conor Reeves (1 goal, 1 assist), Tom Rossidis (1 assist), Kevin Rice, Kevin Seiferth, Kyle Seiferth (2 assists), and Conor Sweeney (2 goals).

The next upcoming games for Garden City are on Sunday, January 16th at 8 p.m. against Island Trees, and Monday, January 17th at 9:40 p.m. against Levittown High School. Both games will be played at the Iceworks rink in Syosset. Please visit www.gcwings.org for a complete game schedule or for additional information on the Wings.