Saturday, October 24, 2009

Tuesday 10/20 Sr. League Giants Vs/ Cardinals

In the early slot on Tuesday, the Cardinals (2-1-1, 5 points) squared off with the Jets (1-4, 2 points). The Cardinals were looking for a victory after an exciting tie with the Giants, while the Jets were just aiming to break their 3 game loosing streak.

At the end of a back and forth, even first period, Rafi Selevan (7th Grade, Yavneh) scored with 40 seconds remaining to put the Cardinals ahead 1-0.

The second period was just a continuation of the first, with both teams playing well and evenly. With 7:53 left in the period, Andrew Teigman (6th grade, Moriah) hit Ami Rosenfeld (7th grade, Moriah) with a nice pass and Rosenfeld put it past Alex Kershenbaum (7th grade, Moriah) to knot it up at one apiece. Five minutes later, Odi Haramati (7th grade, Yavneh) scored unassisted to give the Cardinals the lead again, 2-1.

Heading into the third period with a one-goal advantage, the Cardinals were thinking defense. Their gameplan was to not let the Jets get shots on their forehand. After executing this plan for 4 minutes, the Cardinals continued to play great defense, led by Barak Shachnovitz (8th grade, Hillel) and Russel Oppenheim (8th grade, Ramaz). Despite executing this plan, Rosenfeld scored on a nice backhand shot from the basketball three-point line on the left side to tie the game at two. With 3:28 remaining in the period, #77 scored on a pass from #10 to give the Jets their first lead of the day. The Cardinals had come so far in this game and decided that they weren’t going to lose. Selevan scored his second goal on a cross pass from Haramati to bring the game back to where it started, a tie game. It look as if this game would be headed into OverTime but Aryeh Berman (7th grade, Yavneh) and Max Gruber (7th grade, Yavneh) had something to say about that. With 7 second left until OverTime, Berman managed to find Gruber, who netted his first goal of the season to give the Cardinals the W.

After a long fought evenly matched game, the Cardinals got out of this one with another win to double their win total and go to 2-1-1. Although the Jets played a great game, they got nothing to show for it in the standings. They dropped their 4th straight game after winning the first to drop to 1-4 on the season.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Tuesday night 10/20 Sr. League Patriots Vs. Giants

Tuesday night’s game featured the Giants Vs the Patriots. The Pats came into the game 3-0 with a high powered offense outscoring their opponents by 12 goals. However, the Giants came in with a record of 2-1-1 having played three straight games without a loss.

The game started out with the Giants defense dominating the game and frustrating the Pats offense. This shutdown defense would eventually lead to an early period goal by Jason Levine (8th grade Moriah). The next ten minutes the G-men kept putting on the pressure but were continuously denied by the Pats goalie Shukie Weinstein (7th grade Noam). With 2 minutes left in the period, and the Pats on a power-play, coach Mikey Levy called a smart time- out to set up their power play. It sure paid off when Daniel Levy (6Y) banged in a rebound to tie the game and make his brother look like a genius.

Both teams played evenly in the second period and no goals were scored.

With just 5 minutes left in the game, Ari Fuchs (6th grade Yavneh) shot a rocket from the point to give the Pats a one goal lead. With two minutes left in the game, the Giants kept pressuring the goalie and eventually Levine put in his second the night, off a rebound to force overtime. Overtime started with 3 on 3 and after another Mikey Levy time-out, Rami Laifer (8y) scored a break-away goal that won the game for the Pats. Jack Ganchrow (whose Bar Mitzvah is this Shabbos) was outstanding in defeat, easily saving around 50 shots

Sunday 10/18 Sr. league Dolphins Vs Steelers

To the common TABC Junior hockey fan, October 18th’s matchup of the Dolphins and Steelers was set to be one for the ages. However, with 36 minutes left on the clock and the ball about to be dropped it seemed like the Steelers already thought the game was over, and the Dolphins were just getting ready to play.

As the ref released the puck, the Dolphins blasted right off the faceoff where Akiva Gottlieb (8th grade Yavneh) would score 2 goals in one shift with the help of line mate Yair Knoller (6th grade Noam). But the tag team, looking to write their own script on the score sheet for the night wasn’t done just yet. Later in the period Yair would add 2 of his own dashing through the Steelers defense with unbelievably graceful footwork as if he was a running back on the real Miami Dolphins. This brought the scoreboard to project a 4-0 score in favor of the Dolphins as the teams switched sides in between the 1st and 2nd periods.

The second period began with the Steelers looking to cut back on the lead and would become a fiercely competitive 12 minutes of powerplays. With each time giving it their all shot after shot, pass after pass, clear after clear, the period would come to a stalemate, with the period ending and the Score board still reading 4-0.

After a great speech given by coaches Etan Bardash, Noam Safier, and Yehuda Avner, the Steelers approached midcourt with a certain look in their eyes making you think this game just might not be over yet. The Steelers would be given powerplay shortly into the third period and would capitalize with a ripping one timer from the middle by Jordan Soclof (6th grade Yavneh). However, just as the morale on the Steelers bench began to rise, Alex Gross (6th grade Moriah) reassured the large lead for the Dolphins with a gorgeous goal. The last few minutes of the game would cruise by quickly with another Steeler goal by Jake Reichel (8th grade Yavneh) and an additional Dolphins goal from Akiva Gottlieb giving him a hat trick on the night.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Sunday 10/18 Jr. League Jets vs. Dolphins

A week after the Jets and Dolphins squared off in Miami, the Jets and Dolphins faced off in Teaneck, NJ in one of the most exciting and back and forth games this league has seen in a long time.

With just a few minutes of hockey played, David Adler(5th grade Noam) took a pass at the point and scored on a beautiful shot that put the Jets on the scoreboard first. Joshua Wertenteil(5th grade Yavneh) and the Dolphins had no intent of the Jets taking command of the game. Only 25 seconds after the Jets scored, Wertenteil answered back with a goal of his own. With the score tied at 1 both teams went back and forth trying to capitalize on any opportunity they could. With the period ending Robert Abrahams (5th grade Noam) passed the ball to classmate David Adler who put it in to give the Jets a 2-1 lead after the 1st period.

The second period started with a bang as Jake Lasher (4th grade Moriah) scored a beautiful goal off an asssist from Joshua Wertenteil tying the game 2-2. However, only two minutes later David Adler netted his third goal of the game to give himself a hat trick and much more importantly put the Jets back on top 3-2. Yet again the Dolphins refused to give up as Benjamin Zayat (5th grade Yavneh) fought for the ball in the corner, spun out of the corner and scored evening the score at 3-3 to end the second period.

As if this game was not exciting enough, the third period continued to give us many surprises. Evan Chesner (4th grade Moriah) squeezed through the Dolphin defense to give himself a breakaway and slipped the puck right past the goalie to put the Jets back on top 4-3. With a look of determination, Joshua Wertenteil and Jake Lasher stepped on the court. Only a few seconds into their shift, Wertenteil scored to tie the game and 40 seconds later Lasher scored to give the Dolphins their first lead of the game 5-4 with only minutes left. The Jets offense came rushing back, adding a lot of pressure on to the Dolphins to hold on to their lead. The Dolphin defense held strong for the next few minutes but with only 20 seconds left Adler cut in and scored another goal to send the game into overtime. Only 45 seconds of 3 on 3 overtime play the Jets got a nice shot on net and Evan Chesner found himself in the right place at the right time and banged in a backhand shot to win the game for the Jets and give them their second overtime win of the season.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Sunday 10/18 Jr. League Cardinals Vs. Cowboys

On October 18, 2009 at 1:30 the Cardinals and the Cowboys began an exciting matchup of hockey. Both teams were looking to start their season off on the right foot. With many “rookies” on each roster, both teams looked a bit apprehensive at first and gradually looked better. Gaining confidence after each shift, the teams were ready to go.

Just two minutes into the game Isaac Laifer (5th grade Yavneh) scored a fantastic goal to put the Cardinals up 1-0. Just four minutes after that Eli Spinowitz (3rd grade YNJ), playing in his first ever game in the league, tied the game for the Cowboys with a great goal.

In the 2nd period, Laifer scored yet again to put the Cards back up 2-1. This was followed by four straight goals in just 7 minutes by Jack Stepner (4th grade Noam) to put the Cowboys up 5-2. While many people assumed that Stepner was a veteran in our league, in truth this was his first game. Facing a 5-2 deficit, Laifer knew that he would have to do something special to make this a game. Laifer, who is coming off his first season (out of four) of not winning the championship, matched Stepner goal for goal. He scored two quick goals to cut the lead to 5-4 heading into the 3rd period.

However, Stepner was too much to handle and scored his 5th goal to close out the game and give the Cowboys a 6-4 victory. These fantastic goals by Laifer, Stepner, and Spinowitz were greatly assisted by their teammates and although it was the first game of the season, it was quite exciting.

Sunday 10/18 Jr. League Patriots vs. Steelers

Sunday October 18th, marked the first game for both the Patriots and the Steelers. Both teams played great games to open their seasons and it was a dead heat until the end when the Patriots pulled out a win with a score of 3-2.

Lacking a goalie, the Steelers were forced to put a player in net, in this case young 2nd grader Jake Rothenberg from Noam. The unsuspecting youngster played a great game, especially for someone who hasn’t even played a game before at the position (or any for that matter). Patriots goalie Avery Penn (5th grade Yavneh) also played a solid game making some key saves late in the game.

After a sudden goal by Josh Wiesel (5th grade Yavnehand slow first period, the score was 1-0 Patriots, coming from great play by their defense and goalie. The Patriots came out in the second period firing, and Gabe Isaacs (4th grade YNJ) put in another goal before the game’s halfway mark. The Steelers were desperately in need of a goal to keep the game from getting out of reach. Seth Forman (5th grade Noam) answered with a goal bringing the score to 2-1 heading into the third. Steelers 5th grader Zack Rothenberg (5th grade Noam), older brother of Jake seemed to be on a mission in the third to help his brother get the “W” and after a slew of shots tied the score 2-2.

Neither team wanted to be too aggressive, but neither wanted overtime either, both keeping to a basic 2 offensemen, 2 defensemen formation. With about 5 minutes left in the game, Gabe Isaacs sneaked a shot past goalie Jake Rothenberg for his second goal of the game giving the patriots a 3-2 lead which would stand until the final buzzer rang.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Sat. Night 10/17 Jr. League Eagles Vs Giants

The Giants stepped onto the court hoping to build off last week’s impressive 8-0 thrashing. However, they would learn quickly that not every game would be as easy.

The Eagles veteran goalie Benny Socloff(5th grade Yavneh) was terrific all night thwarting the high flying Giants time after time. The Giants badly outshot the Eagles throughout the game but Socloff was phenomenal, keeping his team in the game.

It wasn’t until the 2nd period when the Giants were finally able to get one passed him. Bryan Alter (5th grade Moriah) shot one over the shoulder of Socloff.

The score would remain 1-0 when the second period ended and the Eagles were thinking that maybe, just maybe, they could put one in to tie up the game at 1 apiece. However, Jeremy Seidel (4th grade Moriah) scored in the 3rd for the Giants. Jacob Nayowitz (4th grade Moriah) had his 2nd straight shutout for the Giants. In the loss, Jacob Rosenfeld (5th grade Yavneh) & Yehuda Saks (4th grade Noam) played nicely for the Eagles.