Cougar Nation won its second consecutive Spring League High School hockey championship by upsetting a heavily favored Paramus High School/Paramus Catholic High School team by the score of 5-3 at Floyd Hall Arena in Montclair.
The Paramus team came out extremely physical—hitting anything that came near the puck. Playing a back and forth physical contest was not in the plan for Cougar Nation, a team made up of area yeshiva high school students from TABC, SAR and Frisch. Already playing with a depleted squad due to the start of camp (yes, camp), the team only had eight skaters available and lost one player to injury, leaving them down to seven. Cougar Nation fell behind 3-1 early in the second period. The talented, slick skating Paramus team then grew increasingly frustrated as the game wore on and took numerous penalties. A late second period power play goal by Maury Bauer cut the lead to 3-2 after two periods.
The third period was an intense battle as the Paramus team’s frustration continued. Time after time, throughout the game, the Paramus rush would be disrupted by defensemen Joe Tropp, Joey Lipschitz and Andy Schenker. If they broke through, goaltender Henry Kolb not only made numerous incredible saves, but then had the presence and awareness to clear the puck away from further danger—much like having an extra defenseman.
Cougar Nation tied it early in the third period and then went ahead with just over six minutes left in the game on two goals by Maury Bauer completing the hat trick. Then, as Paramus was putting the pressure on to tie it, with just over two minutes left, Bauer caught a Paramus defenseman with his head down coming across the ice and delivered a thunderous, open ice body check that was felt all the way back on Century Road. Paramus then seemed to lose a bit of their steam and fittingly, Joe Tropp (playing monster minutes) sealed it with an empty netter, his second of the game, with 20 seconds left.
Jake Fromen and Adam Freilich, created traffic in front of the Paramus net all night and had three assists each. Jack Margolius & David Schenker chipped in with two assists each as they all battled extremely hard and played very heavy, physical hockey minutes.
This game was not won on skill, but by grit, determination and perseverance by each of these young men.
A “Miracle on ice”…..not quite, but for a community just getting its feet wet in real hockey, another statement was clearly made not only by winning, but by how this game was won.
A “big” win…….yes, this one certainly was.
