Momentum had shifted in favor of the unbeaten Bellmore-Merrick hockey team. Long Beach goalie Justin Mele made sure to change that.<\/p>\n
Three shorthanded breakaways were stopped by Mele, including one with 3:36 left in the game, to maintain a one-goal lead.<\/p>\n
Cody Pichichero picked up the puck and exploded up ice. He found his older brother Luke, who dished it back to Cody for a goal to put Long Beach up by two with 3:22 remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team always plays hard, and that motivates me,\u201d Mele said. \u201cIt\u2019s always about never focusing on the past, never focusing on the future. It\u2019s about focusing on the present.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mele delivered all night. He finished with 25 saves as Long Beach defeated Bellmore-Merrick, 4-2, at Town of Oyster Bay Ice Skating Center in Bethpage on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Along with multiple breakaway stops, Mele turned away golden opportunities for Bellmore-Merrick on odd-man rushes throughout the second and third periods, making the difference and handing the Bulldogs their first loss of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom training camp to now, Justin has been lights out,\u201d Long Beach coach Rob Carson said. \u201cCoaches from other teams voted him an All-Star, and tonight showed why.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long Beach (10-2-1) started fast, registering the first seven shots of the game, but Bellmore-Merrick goalie Henry Laglia made the stops. Bellmore-Merrick then adjusted and began attacking. The Bulldogs created chances but could not score.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Long Beach hockey \u2014 they play with energy, and it was about weathering that storm,\u201d Bellmore-Merrick coach Pat Braglia said. \u201cWe did that and played our game, but their goalie was good. We had chances, and maybe if a few of those go in, it\u2019s a different result.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first period ended scoreless and the second followed the same trajectory. After 29 minutes of scoreless hockey, Long Beach broke through.<\/p>\n
Liam Young, who was moved to defense, created an opportunity, and Michael Calvi crashed the net and scored with seven seconds left in the second period to take a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying defense was a bit of an adjustment,\u201d Young said, \u201cbut it\u2019s about being a team player. We got on pucks, dumped them in, and chances came for some greasy goals, and we got them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the third period, Long Beach extended the lead to two on the power play. Kelly Cardo put a shot on net that bounced to Joseph Feerick, who capitalized with 9:13 left. It was the first of two Long Beach power-play goals, as the Marines went 2-for-3 on the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecial teams were huge,\u201d Carson said. \u201cIn other big games it wasn\u2019t there, and we didn\u2019t win them. When we capitalize, these games end up in our favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bellmore-Merrick (9-1-1) responded with 5:21 remaining. Lucas Lucchi made a move through a defender and found Jackson Austin for a goal to cut the deficit to one.<\/p>\n
Mele\u2019s shorthanded stop late proved enormous, and the Pichichero brothers\u2019 give-and-go tally was what the Marines needed to keep the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Justin made that save, I was like, \u2018Thank God,\u2019\u201d Luke Pichichero said. \u201cThen when I saw Cody on the back door, I was like that\u2019s all day, that\u2019s a goal. It\u2019s always great to play with my brother, and we really wanted this win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bellmore-Merrick\u2019s Anthony-Max Vitale scored with 2:53 left to keep the Bulldogs within reach, but Long Beach closed it out.<\/p>\n
The Marines prevented late pressure, and Miles Siegel\u2019s empty-net goal sealed the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one means a lot,\u201d Carson said. \u201cGoing into the playoffs, you want confidence that you can beat everybody. Now we\u2019ve beaten everyone on our schedule, and that\u2019s big heading into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Momentum had shifted in favor of the unbeaten Bellmore-Merrick hockey team. Long Beach goalie Justin Mele made sure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[951,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-127643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-high-school","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}