Sports
Marcou, White Team Win Islanders Prospect Scrimmage, Lose Skills Competiton
Team featuring six of seven Long Islanders holds on to take scrimmage
Kings Park native Mike Marcou and the Islanders White team surprised many and defeated a team full of the organization's top talent, 6-5, Saturday night in front of nearly 5,000 fans at Nassau Coliseum.
Shortly after, the Blue team bested the squad featuring six Long Islanders in the skills competition, with the help of Smithtown's Tony Romano, who netted the game-winner in the team shootout contest.
"We’re all competitive people," said Romano. "We always want to win. It was just fun, we were chirping each other back and forth a little. Pretty fun that we pulled it out at the end."
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Syosset native Ben Rosen assisted on a goal by Port Jefferson native Dan O'Donoghue to push the White team's lead in the scrimmage to 5-2 in the second, and final, period of play.
"We had a faceoff in their zone, my centerman Ben Rosen lost the faceoff on purpose," O'Donoghue said with a laugh. "But we ended up forcing a turnover. It got stuck on the net, so I popped it off, and the goalie didn’t know where it was so I just put it home."
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Many of the players were pleasantly surprised by the strong showing by not only friends and family members, but Islanders fans as well.
"It’s great that the fans come out and support us, especially with the vote coming up," said Romano. "That’s huge. We need the support, and that was great."
O'Donoghue, who had over 20 friends and family come to see him play, was thrilled to hear his name announced after the goal.
"It’s a good feeling scoring here," he said." On pretty much on home ice for me."
The night was punctuated by a highlight-reel goal by Ryan Strome, the Islanders 2011 first-round selection, in the shootout competition. With the help of Strome and Romano, the Blue team went on to win the skills competition.
"It’s pretty special," said O'Donoghue of the scrimmage. "It’s a good experience for myself and my family as well. They get to come out to the game and watch me skate here with talent so it’s a pretty good feeling."
Note: Highlight-reel credit - John Zadrozny of YesIslanders.com
