Time was running out for Long Beach on Wednesday night. Just five minutes left on this sheet of ice to rally from two goals down or be forced into a winner-take-all Game 3 against defending champ Bellmore-Merrick in the Nassau boys hockey finals.
“We did not want to play that team again in a third game with them having the momentum of beating us tonight,” Marines coach Rob Carson said.
It showed. Long Beach scored twice in 26 seconds to force overtime.
Liam Young then finished the two-game sweep for the second-seeded Marines in the rematch of last year’s finals. The junior forward scored 1:19 into double overtime, giving Long Beach the title with a 5-4 win over No. 2 Bellmore-Merrick at Town of Oyster Bay Ice Skating Center in Bethpage.
“This team’s battled for years, going down in the state final [last year], county final,” Young said after Long Beach’s 13th consecutive victory. “We play with more of a purpose, playing for that No. 2 on our chest for Gerrin [Hagen]. So to win for him, win one for the city, it feels great.”
Hagen was an 18-year-old Long Beach captain when he died in 2023 after being hit by a car while traveling on his skateboard.
“It’s our first time winning the championship since that tragedy,” Carson said. “Some of these guys played with him. … So to finally get over the hump is huge.”
Cody Pichichero, who scored twice, fed Young down low after a turnover in the three-on-three second OT.
Young’s backhander sent the Marines to the Long Island championship game against St. Anthony’s on March 14 at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow.
Long Beach (17-2-1) and Bellmore-Merrick (15-3-2) will first head to Binghamton for the state tournament, which begins Feb. 27.
After trailing, 1-0, the Bulldogs outscored Long Beach 4-1 in a wild first 4:56 of the third period. Lucas Lucchi scored the last two.
“We didn’t really respond in periods one and two,” Bellmore-Merrick coach Patrick Braglia said. “For lack of a better term, I guess I stuck my finger in their chest a little bit and challenged them.”
But Michael Calvi scored with 4:37 remaining in regulation and Pichichero followed with a wraparound goal — 4-4.
“I felt like we had more heart in this team,” Pichichero said. “We were all together and no one was too low and no one was too high at the right moments.”
Brian Heyman covers high school, college and pro sports. He joined Newsday in 2021 and previously worked as a sportswriter for The Journal News in White Plains and The Hudson Dispatch in Union City, New Jersey. His work has appeared in The New York Times, MLB.com and Baseball Digest magazine.