The Garden City Wings Varsity ice hockey team did not respond well to their toughest test of the season. Coming
off the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Wings faced playing four games in eight nights against teams with a
combined 18-5-3 record. On Monday December 1st Garden City lost 7-0 to undefeated Massapequa High School, which
featured 13 returning senior players. There were only a couple of bright spots for the Wings that night.
Goaltender Greg McNamara was solid in the nets for Garden City despite the score of the game. The other item
worth noting was the play of forward Greg Flaster who had a solid game for Garden City, especially in the third
period.
The following night Garden City took on Hicksville High School. Goalie Jeff Greco was tremendous during the
first period as Garden City struggled to get the puck out of their end, and was lucky to get out of the period
with no score. Garden City picked up their play during the second period. With five minutes remaining in the
period, John Colan put Garden City on the scoreboard with a nice goal, assisted by Brian Kiernan and Kevin
Seiferth. On his very next shift John Colan scored again, with an assist going to Kevin Rice. Hicksville
scored with a minute remaining in the period to close the gap to 2 to 1.
The third period started off with Hicksville getting some good scoring opportunities, but Jeff Greco continued
his solid night in the nets. Five minutes into the period, John Colan completed his hat trick with an unassisted
goal. Hicksville came right back and scored 23 seconds later to cut Garden City's lead back to one. Garden City
answered back quickly, getting a big goal from Greg Flaster who banged in a rebound off a Kevin Seiferth shot.
John Colan also assisted on the goal for his fourth point of the evening. Ryan Norell added a goal with three
minutes remaining, with an assist going to Michael Makris to finish the scoring for night and give Garden City a
well earned 5 to 2 win. Jeff Greco finished the game with 32 saves to gain his second victory of the season.
Kyle Seiferth also made his presence felt during the third period as he rambled over several Hicksville players
to create two good scoring opportunities.
On Sunday December 7th, Garden City faced a very strong Long Beach High School team, that many people think will
win the state championship this year. Garden City played their strongest two periods of hockey to start the
game as they skated with an extremely fast Long Beach team. Goalie Brendan Collins was brilliant, stopping
many point blank shots. Defenseman Kevin Sieferth, Kevin Rice, Brian Collins, Michael Makris and Chris
Breslin all had good games defensively. The only goal of the first period was a shorthanded goal by Long
Beach.
Long Beach scored again to start the second period, but Ryan Norell scored a top-shelf goal off a pass from
Ryan Boelsen. Long Beach got a goal eight minutes later to make it 3 to 1. With Garden City killing off a
penalty, Gerry Diamond was able to out-race the Long Beach defensemen and score his second shorthanded goal
of the season to pull Garden City to within one goal. Unfortunately, Long Beach scored twelve seconds later
and the period ended with Garden City trailing by two goals.
The third period was all Long Beach as the Garden City team seemed to run out of gas. Long Beach scored five
times during the third period and won the game 9 to 2. In the third period, Long Beach also broke Garden
City's string of killing off 34 penalties in a row. Despite the score, Garden City goaltender Brendan Collins
had a good night in nets and finished the game with 37 saves.
On the next night, Garden City took on the Bellmore-Merrick team, who are the defending Large School Nassau
County Champions. In the middle of the first period, some hard work paid off for Garden City. Conor Sweeney
took a mid ice pass from Max Aurruchio, fought his way into the Bellmore-Merrick zone, and made a beautiful
pass to Conor Reeves who banged it in to give Garden City a 1 - 0 lead. The lead was short lived as Bellmore
got even during a power play. With two minutes remaining, Garden City retook the lead on a power play goal by
Ryan Norell, assisted by Brian Kiernan and Ryan Boelsen.
Midway through the second period, Bellmore tied the game on another power play goal. During the period,
Garden City could not capitalize their scoring chances. Forward combinations of Gerry Diamond, John Iamascia,
Greg Flaster and Kevin Betts created several good scoring opportunities during the period.
Early in the third period, Bellmore scored the game winner. Garden City continued to put pressure on the
Bellmore goalie but could not get anything passed him. Garden City goalie Greg McNamara had a very strong
game, twice stopping breakaways and giving up only one even strength goal. The defensive unit of Chris
Breslin, Michael Makris, Brian Collins, Kevin Rice and Kevin Seiferth also played a good game.