Three Long Island boys ice hockey teams advance to state semifinals
Anthonymax Vitale and Jourdan Luskoff celebrate a goal scored by Vitale against St. Francis during the state tournament at SUNY Broome Ice Center on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Binghamton. Credit: Diana Valdivia
Three of the four semifinalists in the state ice hockey tournament will be from Long Island.
Smithtown/Hauppauge and St. Francis (Buffalo) will meet Sunday at 8 a.m. Bellmore-Merrick and Long Beach will face off at 10 a.m.
Both games will be at SUNY Broome Ice Rink in Binghamton.
The championship game is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the same venue.
Smithtown/Hauppauge: 2 overtime games, 2 victories
It was dramatic ice hockey once again for Smithtown/Hauppauge, this time in state tournament pool play. Junior forward Luke Anderson came up clutch not once, but twice.
On Friday, the Bulls played their first two games of the tournament. Against Long Beach, the game was tied at 2 heading to overtime. In three-on-three action, Anderson found himself with space and delivered a goal to give the Bulls a 3-2 win.
In their second game, Smithtown/Hauppauge trailed by two goals against Arlington. Liam McNamara and Marcus D’Errico both scored to tie the game. In overtime, it was Anderson again, this time delivering a tape-to-tape pass to McNamara in stride for a breakaway goal for a 3-2 victory.
"We just had a win or go home mentality. Anderson said. “We needed these wins to guarantee us a good spot headed into the semis and we got it.”
The Bulls finished pool play 3-0.
Bellmore-Merrick goes unbeaten in pool play
On the other side of the bracket, Bellmore-Merrick won all three games over the course of Friday and Saturday. A highly-anticipated matchup with St. Anthony’s turned into the Jourdan Luskoff show.
The senior forward netted a hat trick as Bellmore-Merrick defeated St. Anthony’s 4-2 in its first pool play game.
“Props to those guys but we found ways to win," Luskoff said. “We found ways to put the puck in the net. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty but that doesn’t matter. And to get wins like this is big for our confidence.“
On Saturday morning, the Bulldogs continued their success. Bellmore-Merrick collected a 6-1 win over St. Francis (Buffalo). Bellmore-Merrick ended 3-0 in pool play and secured a spot in the state semifinals.
Long Beach wins and gets in
After losing to Smithtown/Hauppauge, the Marines bounced back with an 8-1 win over Elmira on Friday night. They found themselves in a win-or-go-home situation against Arlington in their final game of pool play Saturday.
Long Beach started fast with a two-goal lead after the first period. Cody Pichichero then delivered two more goals and Long Beach cruised to a 5-1 victory.
“I feel like that loss to Smithtown/Hauppauge gave us a little bit of fire,” Pichichero said. “It helped us push and now we’re all working together as a team just going 100%.”
St. Anthony’s falls short
St. Anthony’s had a 1-1 record headed into the final game of pool play. A trip to the semifinals was on the line, but St Francis (Buffalo) proved to be too much. The Friars fell 4-1 to St Francis on Saturday night. St. Anthony’s goalie Jordan Valcich had 46 saves.
