Wings Varsity 2000

	Garden City Wings Ice Hockey Club
	Wings Varsity 10/19/03 Game Summary Back Return to Wings Home Page

Varsity Wings Gain Second Victory
The Garden City Wings Varsity ice hockey team continued their winning ways last Sunday night with a 4-1 victory over Island Trees High School. Similar to their first game, the Wings came out flying and dominated the first five minutes of the game. Off the opening face-off, forwards Conor Reeves, Conor Sweeney and Kevin Betts got the Wings going with a strong shift against the Island Trees top line. Following a line change, Garden City got on the scoreboard at the 1:08 marked as Ryan Boelsen drilled home a shot from the slot off a feed from Brian Kiernan. Two minutes later the line of Gerry Diamond, John Iamascia and Max Aurruchio followed with a goal, as Gerry Diamond scored with an assist going to Kevin Seiferth. A minute later, on the ensuing shift, Garden City was called for an elbow penalty. Twenty seconds into the man-down situation, Ryan Norell out hustled two Island Trees players to a loose puck and scored an unassisted short-handed goal. The remaining ten minutes of the period featured good end-to-end hockey from both teams and the period ended with Garden City having a 3-0 lead.

The second period featured more nonstop action. Island Trees got on the board midway through the period, to move within two goals. Garden City responded two minutes later, as Brian Kiernan scored following some good corner work by fellow line mates Ryan Norell and Ryan Boelsen. That closed out the goal scoring for the period and the game.

Through out the evening, several Wings forwards played good two-way hockey, which does not get noted on the scoresheet. Conor Sweeney played a very strong physical game at both ends of the rink. Sweeney, with line-mates Kevin Betts and Conor Reeves consistently outplayed their opposing Island Trees line. Greg Flaster and Kyle Seifert contributed several strong shifts during the evening, rotating between lines giving other forwards a much-needed rest.

Garden City had to be strong defensively. After taking an early lead, the Wings got sloppy and took several bad penalties, including two bench minors. Luckily for the Wings, the penalty killing units were able to shut down the Island Trees power play and not let them get back into the game. Penalty killing forwards Conor Sweeney, Conor Reeves, John Iamascia, Gerry Diamond, Brian Kiernan, Ryan Norell and Ryan Boelsen all contributed up front to help the defense turn away Island Trees while Garden City was short-handed.

Defensemen Brian Collins, Kevin Seiferth, Kevin Rice and Mike Makris again had strong games in their defensive zone. Kevin Seiferth and Brian Collins were exceptional in controlling the play down low and rejecting centering passes in front of their goaltender. Mike Makris consistently made smart breakout decisions in moving the puck up to the forwards. Kevin Rice used his long reach throughout the game to stick check the Island Trees puck carriers. Rice currently leads the defensemen with a plus/minus rating of four.

Junior Greg McNamara got the start in net and gave Garden City another strong goaltending effort. Greg was especially strong during the second period, as Island Trees had several power play opportunities. McNamara ended the evening with 20 saves.

The Wings have this weekend off, but have two games the following weekend. On Friday October 31st at 10:00pm at the Iceworks rink in Syosset, Jeff Greco makes his varsity debut in goal for the Wings as they take on a very tough Levittown High School team. On Sunday November 2nd at 9:30pm at the Newbridge rink in Bellmore the Wings will take on St. Mary's High School. This will be a very challenging weekend for the Wings, as the combined record for these two teams last year was 27-9-4. Please visit www.gcwings.org for a complete game schedule or for additional information on the Wings.