The Taste of Defeat: Bellmore-Merrick Hockey Drops First Game of Season

The Bellmore-Merrick Bulldogs were 14-0-0 and had outscored their opponents 105-16 heading into Wednesday’s game against the Massapequa Chiefs. But finally, a team got the best of the Bulldogs as the Chiefs scored overcame a three-goal deficit in route to an 8-5 victory.

Massapequa trailed 4-1 at one point in the game, but managed to score six straight goals from the second period into the third. The Chiefs also went an impressive 6-for-9 on the power play.

Winning aside, the Chiefs are the first team that has led against the Bulldogs all season.

“It was without a doubt our best game this year,” Massapequa head coach Tony DeMayo said. “We came out a little slow in the first period and got a little frustrated. But we knew they were the best team, we just didn’t want them to have an undefeated season this year.”

Joey Bochichio had a huge game for the Chiefs, scoring one goal and dishing out four assists. Mike Tardino and Anthony Mangone each scored two goals, while Bobby Oldmixon finished with one goal and two assists.

Defenseman Aiden Cooper and forward James Bobb each tallied one goal and two assists for the Bulldogs. James Karp and Frankie Leavey both added one goal and one assist.

“I don’t think we played as a team,” said Bulldogs defenseman Michael O’Byrne after the loss. “I don’t think we worked together. It wasn’t a team, just a mess. … A loss is a loss, and that’s what we needed as a reality check for states.”

To make matters worse, the Bulldogs lost defenseman Nicholas Abbene for the remainder of the game and potentially a few more weeks with a dislocated shoulder after he was thrown into the boards early in the first period.

“He’s okay. He has a separated shoulder. He took a tough hit,” Bellmore-Merrick head coach Chris Patten said. “… He’s good, so we’re hoping that it’s a quick recovery time because we miss having him back there.”

Score: Massapequa 8, Bellmore-Merrick 5

Records: Massapequa 12-2-0; Bellmore-Merrick 14-1-0

Heroes: With his team trailing 3-0 early and then 4-1, Bochichio had a hand in four of the Chief’s first five goals and was a major threat on the power play.

“I would rate him as probably the best player in the league and he proved it tonight,” DeMayo said of Bochichio’s play. “He’s very controlled, he knows what he’s doing and he keeps his head in the game.”

Cooper got the scoring started for the Bulldogs and played a big role in giving his team an early lead.

O’Byrne finished with one assist and with his team ahead 4-2 in the second period, used his glove to smack the puck away from the Bellmore-Merrick goal just before it was about to cross the line.

“[They are] seniors, we expect that from them,” Bellmore-Merrick head coach Chris Patten said of Cooper and O’Byrne. “They’ve been around with us for a while now and we trust them when the two of them are out there. They both played a good game tonight.”

Turning Point: The game was tied at 4-4 when Karp was called for a questionable hooking penalty four minutes into the third period. It appeared that a Chiefs’ forward was holding his stick, but the referees saw it a different way. Moments later, Bochichio found Mangone in front of the net to give Massapequa the 5-4 lead.

“I knew when it was 3-0 that someone needed to step up to the plate and go out there and try to get us back in the game,” Bochichio said. “We played hard as a team and I just went out there and did my job.”

Quotable: “I thought we had a good first period. Then I think we got on our heels and I think we started turning on ourselves a little bit there,” Patten said. “It was the first real adversity the boys saw all this year and we have to work on being able to handle adversity a lot better.”

Bottom Line: The Bulldogs failed to score on a two-minute 5-on-3 power play early in the first period. One or two goals there could have made a big difference in the final outcome of the game.

The intensity picked up significantly as the game progressed and the frustration of the Bellmore-Merrick players was noticeable in the third period. After being called for a penalty with less than three minutes left, Leavey was thrown out of the game after shoving a player on the Massapequa bench.

“I think we lost our discipline,” Patten said. “Intensity is one thing, but control of your emotions and control of the way you’re playing, I think we lost that in the third period.”

“It was just a very physical game. But this is the kind of hockey game we like,” DeMayo added. “… We love playing against Bellmore-Merrick.”

The two teams will more than likely meet again in the finals in February.

Key Stat: Massapequa went 6-for-9 on the power play.

Who’s Next? Jan. 23, Bellmore-Merrick vs. Bethpage (Town of Oyster Bay Skating Center in Bethpage), 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 21, Massapequa vs. Garden City (Town of Oyster Bay Skating Center in Bethpage), 9:30 p.m.

Box Score: