On Saturday night, December 27th, the 6-0 TABC Storm faced off against the 6-2 MTA Lions at TABC, the first of two matchups between these two teams in a week, the second of which was played after this paper went to print. The atmosphere in the TABC gym proved how vital this game was for both teams.
The 1st period was one of terrific goaltending as the game was tied at 0 when the period ended. Both the Storm and the Lions showed sparks of chances, but Rami Levine of TABC and Shuki Weinstein of MTA, as well as the defensive pairings of both teams, kept the door shut.
The 2nd period showed much of the same and it seemed that the game was going to head into the 3d period still deadlocked at 0 until late in the period when the Storm worked the puck deep in the Lions zone. Daniel Levy took the puck from the corner and started to come around the net when he drew a penalty. Keeping control of the ball on the delayed penalty call, Levy got up and found an open Shua Naor at the point who fired a rocket top shelf to give the Storm a 1-0 lead.
The first half of the 3rd period looked just like the first two with both teams sharing chances and the both goaltenders standing tall. Midway through the period Daniel Levy worked his way through two MTA defensemen and found Yair Knoller in the middle, who lifted the ball into the top of the net to extend the lead to two. After a timeout by the MTA coaching staff, the Lions came out strong and cut the lead to one on a breakaway by Ezra Quint, who got behind the TABC defensemen and slipped the puck past Rami Levine. A little over a minute later, Yair Knoller won a deep zone faceoff back to Shua Naor, who fired a shot to the back of the net to make the score 3-1.
By Jonah Ganchrow
