West Islip and Ward Melville are set to play their most important game in a battle for the eighth seed in the SCHSHL playoffs. The teams sit just three points apart. A win for West Islip would eliminate Ward Melville from playoff contention, but a Patriots victory would mean they are still alive for the postseason.
On Wednesday night, January 19, just a wall separated West Islip (8-9-1 17 pts.) and Ward Melville (7-10-0 14 pts.) at the Rinx in Hauppauge.
West Islip faced Connetquot-Sayville (12-6-0 24 pts.), who looked to keep pace amongst the top teams of the division. Meanwhile, Ward Melville was dealt Eastport South Manor (3-14-1 7 pts.), a much less daunting foe.
West Islip opened the scoring on a high arching shot from Alex Bietto (2), that floated over Connetquot’s goalie and landed in the back of the net at 12:15 in the first period. The score remained 1-0 until Derek Scheben (17) scored over the glove hand of the Connetquot goalie and gave West Islip a 2-0 lead with 12:33 left in the second.
On the other side of the arena, Ward Melville also struck early. ESM turned the puck over and James Clifford (11) capitalized giving Ward Melville a 1-0 lead. The lead would not last long, as ESM answered back with a power play goal from James Graffagino (2) four minutes later. It looked like ESM could knockWard Melville out of playoff contention until Nicholas Monfredo (5) and Anthony Campagna (9) scored less than a minute apart to put the Patriots ahead 3-1 in the first period.
Adam Friedman (7, 8) scored twice in the second and Jake Mangano (9) tacked on another to boost the Patriot lead to 6-2, giving them a vital win over ESM. Ward Melville moved to 8-10-0 16 pts. one point behind West Islip, now needing to win to hold their ground.
Back on the other side of the rink, Connetquot was doing their best to help the Patriots. Justin Young (3) scored with a minute left in the second period and Colin Beisel (18) tied the game attwo, a minute into the third. 20 seconds later, Connetquot got another goal, this time off the stick of William Hayes (5) and it looked as if Ward Melville would be able to creep closer.
Derek Scheben (18) had other ideas. 18 seconds into a West Islip powerplay, the forward got a rebound in front of the net and tied the game with 12 minutes left.
3-3, with 6 minutes to play, Aidan Conti drove to the net. Two feet from the goal he stopped, shot, and scored as the puck hit just inside the crossbar and Conti (2) gave West Islip a 4-3 victory.
The Lions improved to 9-9-1 19 pts. holding off the Patriots in the standings; setting up a thriller. The game can be watched on YouTube on Long Island Sports Network at 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday, January 26.
