On June 17, the Martin Weiselberg Memorial Tournament held its 13th annual junior high hockey tournament. Six schools from the New York and New Jersey junior high leagues converged onto Yeshiva Har Torah in Bellerose, for the chance to earn the championship for the only hockey tournament on any age level.
Each of the six schools, host Har Torah, YCQ, HANC, Kushner, RYNJ and Yavneh, played two round-robin games against teams from the other state before the top four moved on to the knockout rounds. In the morning session, Yavneh opened up the day with a 2-1 victory over Har Torah on a goal and an assist by Aiden Einhorn. RYNJ followed suit with a 6-0 win over HANC and Kushner earned a 1-0 win on a goal by Isaac Mendelson.
The kids were then treated to a pizza lunch courtesy of Benny’s Pizza in Queens. In between the two sessions, event organizer Elliot Weiselberg unveiled championship banners, provided by Crown Trophy, of Brooklyn, for each of the previous 12 tournament champions to hang in their respective gyms alongside the trophies that they had earned.
The afternoon session saw three more tight games as RYNJ blanked Har Torah, 2-0, Yavneh upended Kushner, 3-2 in a shootout, and Kushner defeated HANC, 2-0. Following the round-robin session, the top four teams, RYNJ, Kushner, Yavneh and YCQ prepared for the knockout stage of the tournament.
In the first semifinal, YCQ took an early 1-0 lead over RYNJ on a goal by Andrew Haller, but with 1:10 left in the third period, Eli Knapp put home the equalizer. There would be no scoring the rest of regulation or through the four minute overtime and the game went to a shootout. The deciding goal would come in the fifth round as, following a beautiful stick save by RYNJ ‘s Chaim Mermelstein, Dani Greenberg put home the game-winner for the 2-1 RYNJ victory.
In the other semifinal, Yavneh got on the board first against Kushner on a goal by Jacob Feit, but Mendelson and Jordan Serviss would leapfrog the Cobras over the Redhawks, while Nate Savitz held down the net the rest of the way for the 2-1 Kushner win.
In the championship, the Cobras took the lead half-way through the game on a strange bounce off the stick of Ben Matthew and looked poised to lock down the Jaguars for the victory. However, RYNJ’s AJ Seplowitz would knot the score with 2:11 left in regulation and with no further scoring, the game would go to overtime. In the extra session, neither team could find the net, and for the first time in tournament history, the championship would be decided by a shootout.
The lone shootout goal would come in the second frame, when Kushner’s David Dunec rifled one into the RYNJ net, as Savitz would swat aside all three Jaguar attempts for Kushner’s second-straight tournament victory. Savtiz compiled four wins while only ceding two goals on the day to become the first goalie to capture tournament MVP honors.
The day would also not have been possible without Yeshiva Har Torah, Rabbi Gary Menchel and Ed Fox, who graciously opened their doors to the very first tournament in 2006, three months after the passing of then-assistant coach Elliot’s father Marty, and have continued to do so ever since.
In addition, the tournament also served as a fundraiser for Hatzolah. For the fifth year in a row the tournament met its goal of raising $10,000 through donations, sponsorships and ticket purchases for a raffle that included phenomenal hockey memorabilia, including a Montreal Canadiens jersey autographed by Patrick Roy and a puck autographed by Mark Messier. Sposors of the day included Crown Trophy of Brooklyn, Nachum Segal Network’s Court Report, Regal Bank of New Jersey, Camp Dovid Hockey Camp, MTA, Liquid Capital, W4M Studios and Fruits in Chocolate. All participants walked away with a gift bag complete with a tournament T-shirt, water bottle and various other goodies provided by all of the event sponsors.
