Winning State-ment: Bellmore-Merrick Hockey Places Second at States

The Bellmore-Merrick Bulldogs hockey team wasn't sure what to expect when heading to the state tournament this past weekend -- but five games and one trophy later, the team couldn't have been happier with its second-place showing against some of the best teams in New York.

The Bulldogs opened up the tournament with three inter-division games on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to advance to the "frozen four."

Bellmore-Merrick skated past Canisius 2-1 on Friday night in the opening game.

The Bulldogs followed Friday night's win with a 4-4 tie against Lancaster on Saturday morning.

Saturday night, the team broke out with a 7-2 win over Hutch Tech. With the win, the Bulldogs clinched first place in their division and advanced to the frozen four.

Bellmore-Merrick played St. Joe's in the semifinals of the frozen four. After trailing 1-0 to start, the Bulldogs tied the game on the strength of a Brett Capilupi goal. The game remained tied at 1-1 and went into overtime, where senior Andrew Connell scored the game-winner and helped the team advance to the state finals.

"That game was great because one of my seniors, that has been with me for years, scored the tying goal, and then one of my other seniors scored the game-winning in overtime," Bellmore-Merrick head coach Chris Patten said. "It was just a really emotional and really great game that advanced us to the finals."

The team went into the finals against St. Francis and came up just short, losing 4-3. St. Francis jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead.

The Bulldogs continued to claw their way back into the game and had an opportunity to tie the game late in the third after pulling their goalie, but could not convert.

"They have a lot that they should be proud of," Patten said. "It was an amazing weekend."

The team was missing two first-line players, James Karp and Frankie Leavey, one second-line player, Steven Azzara, and defenseman Nick Abbene. The team also lost defenseman and alternate captain Aiden Cooper for the final game against St. Francis.

"We were a team built around a bunch of people, not just one person, and everyone contributed up there," Patten said.

Eight teams qualified for the state tournament, including the Massapequa Chiefs -- the same team that defeated the Bulldogs 2-0 to win the Nassau County championship.

The Bulldogs were looking for a little redemption against the Chiefs over the weekend, especially after just having lost to them three weeks earlier, but Massapequa went 1-2 in the qualifying rounds and failed to reach the frozen four.

"They're an amazing group of young men," Patten said. "They fought like you've never seen another team fight. ... This trip brought the best out of every one of my boys, on and off the ice."