Turns out the third time was the charm for the Bellmore-Merrick high school hockey team.
Following a 15-1 regular season, the Bulldogs won all four playoff contests and their first New York Islanders High School Hockey League championship since 2016 after sweeping the best-of-three final against Long Beach in mid-February. The Marines had dealt Bellmore-Merrick its only loss on Dec. 9.
The Bulldogs were appearing in their third straight final after being swept in the previous two by Syosset and Bethpage. The victory also snapped coach Patrick Braglia’s five-game losing streak in that round.
“This is, obviously, a fantastic year,” he said. “This was the goal. A lot of these kids endured losing twice and so they really prepared themselves to win. It was something that we talked about, and it was our motto all year. We used the term ‘embrace hard’.”
Long Beach was poised to beat Bellmore-Merrick again after carrying a one-goal lead into the third period of the series opener on Feb. 10. But with two minutes left, Bulldog defenseman Liam Barkaus pinched deep and collected a loose puck in the left corner before sliding a pass to leading scorer Nicholas Drogan, who fired in a shot from the slot to tie it.
“Systematic hockey,” Braglia said. “We forced a turnover. We forced them to play the puck where they should not play it. Liam was using his super-hockey IQ, reads the play, [and] finds Nick in the slot standing all by himself. I couldn’t draw it up any better.”
The Marines had a chance to win it with 25 seconds left in overtime, but Bulldog goalie Joe Braglia poke-checked the puck away from Richard Behr Jr. to thwart the odd-man rush. Ten seconds later, Collin Roulston deflected a Marines clearing attempt to the right wall, where Lucas Lucchi gathered the puck. Roulston then skated towards the left post and deflected Lucchi’s shot for the game-winner: 3-2 Bulldogs.
“It was awesome,” Patrick Baglia said. “Joey makes a huge poke-check down at the other end [and] forces numbers for us coming in the opposite direction. Collin makes an unbelievable play to knock down a clearing pass and then instead of just standing and waiting, he does what good hockey players do, goes to the net. He’s been huge for us all year.”
Two days later, Sean Keene scored two of Bellmore-Merrick’s five goals in the second period en route to an 8-2 win and the title.
Drogan was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after recording six goals and 11 points in the four games. His points were nearly half of the 23 he had during the regular season (15 goals, eight assists).
Roulston had five postseason goals and Jourdan Luskoff and Chase Goldman chipped in four apiece.
The Bulldogs advanced to the final with a 4-2 triumph against Manhasset/Great Neck/Port Washington on the strength of four power-play goals, including two by Luskoff in a 2:33 span early in the second period. Roulston added a pair.
Bellmore-Merrick had a plus-54 scoring differential during the regular season (73-19) thanks to a defensive corps consisting of Barkaus, Evan Lenz, Brandon Richardson, Cole Zinman, Kyle Wilcha, Noah Carrasquillo, and Jaden Grillo. Joe Braglia won 11 games while posting a 1.35 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
