Kempner's 5 goals lift Wantagh/Seaford over Massapequa
Baymen's captain Billy Kempner scores a goal during his teams 7-6 victory over the Chiefs. (February 23, 2010) Credit: Photo by Bob Mitchell
A night of ties, tension and precarious one goal leads ended in victory for No. 3 Wantagh/Seaford last night. The defense made Billy Kempner's fifth goal of the night stand up in a 7-6 win over No. 2 Massapequa in the semifinals of the Nassau Michelino Division ice hockey playoffs at the Oyster Bay Ice Skating Center.
Wantagh/Seaford advances to play No. 1 Long Beach in Game 1 of the county finals Wednesday night at 7:45 p.m. at the Oyster Bay rink.
Mickey Wallace and Andrew Friedman each had a goal and three assists for Wantagh/Seaford. Mike Tardino had four goals and Tim Root and Pat Glanzman each had a goal and an assist.
"I beat the one defender and I had a bad angle at the shot and I saw Billy, he's a big guy so he's hard to miss," Friedman said, talking about his assist on Kempner's eventual game-winner. "I just tried to put it near his stick, and he usually scores nine out of 10 times."
The Wantagh/Seaford fans, bench and players all celebrated the tie-breaker, but Kempner tempered his expectations.
"I thought we'd won about four other times," he said, laughing.
The teams' recent history suggested a taut contest. During the regular season the Baymen beat Massapequa (14-5-2) two out of three times and tied the other. The teams were paired in the finals last year and Wantagh/Seaford came out on top in three games, winning its third consecutive Nassau championship.
The Baymen opened the scoring Tuesday night with one minute and 33 seconds of fury, unleashing consecutive goals by Wallace, Kempner and Friedman from 13:09 to 11:36 to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
"There was a lot of adrenaline going through us," Wallace said. "We just wanted to get out there and win."
But Massapequa battled back with five uncontested goals in the first and second period, three by Tardino, as the Baymen's offense fell silent for over 25 minutes after its initial explosion. Wantagh/Seaford's sticks finally woke up on three straight goals by Kempner, the second tying the score 54 seconds into the third period and the third giving the Baymen a one goal edge at 7:44.
The lead was fleeting, however, as Tardino netted his fourth goal of the night 42 seconds later to tie the score for Massapequa again before Kempner's final shot.
"I'd do anything to get to that championship game," Kempner said. "Like I said the other day, we have to do what we have to do, and we did it."
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