After being rescheduled twice due to the snow, the JV hockey semifinal game between the TABC Storm and the HAFTR Hawks, was finally played at the WeatherCenter on Sunday afternoon, March 11th. Both teams came to play, as most of the 1st period play was even. Late in the period, TABC capitalized on an opportunity, when Zach Levy took it towards the net and Jake Rothenberg cleaned up the rebound to give TABC the 1-0 lead, with a little over 1 minute left in the period.
The 2nd period brought more of the same, with each team’s goalie keeping them afloat. Halfway through the period, the Storm went on a power play and got a goal from Freshman Eli Blumenfeld on a nice feed from Jake Rothenberg. The period finished out with more back-and-forth play, and a 2-0 TABC lead.
Heading into the 3rd period trailing by 2, the Hawks knew they would have to dig deep to have a chance in this game, and dig deep they did. For most of the 3rd period, HAFTR had the edge in play, finally putting one past TABC goalie Charles Gibber about halfway through the period. With the help of stout defense from Yonatan Naor, Natan Rifkind, and Baruch Shmukler-Karpov, a timely shift by Shlomo Pasternak, and overwhelmingly relentless offensive pressure from Ben Englander, Shlomo Gellman, Ving Levy, and Ezra Seplowitz, TABC was able to shut the door on HAFTR, earning their way back to Lawrence Middle School for a rematch of last year’s championship game against the defending JV champions, the Frisch Cougars. The championship promises to be an entertaining matchup, as TABC and Frisch split their head-to-head matchup this season. Puck drop at 1:15
Jake Rothenberg G, A
Eli Blumenfeld G
Zach Levy A