The 2017 Martin Weiselberg Memorial Hockey Tournament took place on Sunday May 21, in Yeshiva Har Torah in Queens. Eight junior high hockey teams gathered to compete for the crown of the most prestigious and the longest running hockey tournament in any age group in the tri-state area. The teams were broken up into groups of four, with two New York teams and two New Jersey teams in each section.
For the second year in a row, the morning session belonged to the New Jersey squads in both groups. Group A saw Yavneh defeat HANC 2-0 on goals by Aiden Einhorn and Zachary Levy and defending champion Noam light up HALB 4-0. In Group B, Moriah, bolstered by two Jacob Borenstein goals, held off host Har Torah 3-1 and HAYMISH champion Kushner downed MYJHHL finalist HAFTR 3-1, thanks to two first period goals by Jesse Koppel.
Following a pizza lunch from Benny’s of Queens, the New Jersey teams would continue their dominance, winning three of four. Yavneh dropped HALB 2-0 and Noam dumped HANC 5-0, behind Eli Blumenfeld’s second and third goals on the day to send both winners to the Group A semifinals. On the Group B side, Kushner dominated Har Torah to advance before the closest and most intense game between HAFTR and Moriah wound down the round-robin session. HAFTR held a 2-0 on goals by Ian Friedman before Moriah would battle back with two of their own late in the third. HAFTR, though, needing a win to force a tiebreak shootout got an answer from sixth grader Joey Cohen with under two minutes remaining for the 3-2 win. The two schools, tied in the standings would go to a shootout to decide who would face Kushner in the semis. Only one goal would be scored in the session and that would be HAFTR’s first shot off the stick of Calvin Oliner to keep the semifinals from being an all-New Jersey affair.
Following Mincha, the semifinals would see Yavneh score mid-way through the first on Levy’s third goal of the afternoon. The score would remain 1-0 until the start of the third when David Markovitz would score to up the lead to two. The goal would be significant, however, the assist ended up being more so, as Levy, either scoring or assisting on all six of Yavneh’s goals to that point, combined with the seven points earned in last year’s event had set the new mark for all-time career points in tournament history with 13. Yavneh’s Judah Orlanski would hold off Noam the rest of the way for this third shutout of the afternoon to send Yavneh back to the finals for the second year in a row. In the other semifinal, three Max Orbach goals powered Kushner in a romp over HAFTR to set up a rematch of the HAYMISH championship game between the Redhawks and the Cobras.
The two sides fought bitterly for two scoreless periods of play, but in the third, the HAYMISH champion Cobras would find their answer in the form of Eytan Kaynan. Kaynan would plant two in a four-minute span to give Kushner its lead and Itai Merlin would make it stand up, finishing with a shutout in a 2-0 win, to give Kushner its first tournament championship.
Following the game, trophies sponsored by Crown Trophy of Brooklyn were handed out to several deserving participants. Kushner’s Max Orbach took home MVP honors with six goals and two assists on the day. Kushner’s Itai Merlin and Yavneh’s Judah Orlanski were named All-Tournament First-Team and All-Tournament Second-Team goalies, both posting stellar days in net. Yavneh’s Zachary Levy earned All-Tournament First-Team honors and special recognition for his career achievements at the tournament. The remaining First Team honors would go to Kushner’s Eytan Kaynan and Jesse Koppel and Noam’s Eli Blumenfeld. The remaining Second Team honors were awarded to Moriah’s Jacob Borenstein, Noam’s Jonah Gerson, HAFTR’s Ian Friedman and Kushner’s A.J. Keiser. For Blumenfeld, Levy, Keiser and Orlanski, the awards marked their second piece of “hardware” in their tournament careers.
All participants received a gift bag with a tournament T-shirt and water bottle from LNS Enterprises and items from sponsors Regal Bank, the Nachum Segal Network and Fruits in Chocolate.
The event would like to extend a special thank you to its other sponsors: Custom Care Concierge, Select Land Services, The Court Report and Camp Dovid and to the Yeshiva Har Torah administration for their never-ending contribution to the event.
By JLNJ Sports Staff
