On Tuesday, November 2, the TABC Storm faced off against the HANC Hurricanes for the first TABC varsity hockey game in almost two years. Entering the game, tensions were riding high as the last time the Storm faced HANC was in a 3-1 playoff win in the Weather Center. Early in the first period, a HANC defenseman struck first as he snuck a shot over the shoulder of junior goalie Chaim Mermelstein. A few minutes later, on the power play, the Storm responded as junior Ryan Brandwein won the faceoff back to Jordan Rieder, who slid the puck to AJ Seplowitz for an easy one-timer to tie up the game at one.
After a disappointing first period, the Storm found their rhythm. Early in the second period, star senior Joey Zelig spun up from behind the net and found the top corner of the net to take a 2-1 lead. Then, with 10:30 left in the second, Brandwein found the back of the net to raise the lead to 3-1. Soon after, Zelig picked up his second goal on a wraparound off the assist of Seplowitz to take a commanding 4-1 lead. With the lead starting to pile up quickly, the HANC Hurricanes had no response to the mighty Storm offense. With 7:19 to go in the second, Zachary Gibber scored his first career goal on a deep clear from the other zone. Soon after, Eli Altman picked up his first goal of the season after picking up a clear from senior Natan Solomon to extend the lead to 6-1.
At the end of the second period, it was clear that the Storm were in control of the game. In the third, although The Storm were up big, they still had hockey to play as Zelig finished his hat trick on a crazy goal to knock the wind out of the Hurricanes. However, the Storm gave up a power-play goal to a HANC defenseman, closing the lead to 7-2. The offensive performance was backed by excellent goalie play by Mermelstein and strong defense by the Storm, along with great announcing by Rabbi Adelman and Rabbi Rabovsky on TABCTV, taking this battle vs. HANC 7-2.
Ikey Gutlove has been a long time contributor to the sports section of The Jewish link and is currently The Jewish Link of New Jersey sports intern. He can be reached at [email protected].
