Last March, the Frisch varsity hockey team left Lawrence Middle School disappointed after a miraculous playoff run. The team finished the regular season 9-4-1 placing them at the fourth seed in the Western Conference. On their path to the championship, Frisch had upset both the Eastern conference first seed DRS Wildcats in the quarter-finals and the Western conference second seed TABC Storm, both of these games on the road. Unfortunately, the miracle fell short of winning it all, when the Cougars fell to the SAR Sting in a disappointing championship game.
However, the Frisch Cougars had great expectations for the coming season, as they were about to reassemble their JV squad who had together won Frisch’s first ever JV championship, the prior year. Each member of the coming year’s varsity team would be coming off disappointing losses in their own respective championship games and was hungry for redemption.
Leading the team this year would be returning head coach Yaak Lisker and newly hired assistant coach Donny Fuchs, a former TABC hockey legend.
The highly anticipated first game of this 2018-2019 season would be a rematch of last year’s championship game vs. the defending champion SAR Sting. Early into the second period of the game and the Frisch season was a beauty scored by junior Elliot Eisner. This goal would end up being the game-winning goal, giving them the 3-0 win, as Frisch began to prove to themselves that this year will be different than last.
The next five games consisted of two home and home series with MTA and Hillel and one game at JEC. Frisch went on to win all five games, bringing their total combined score totals to 53 goals for and only one against through their first six games. In the second MTA game, both captain Josh Levine and senior Natan Neugroschel recorded hat-tricks leading Frisch to an 8-1 win. The Hillel games featured some of Frisch’s younger talent including rising junior star goalie Evan Solomon. Additionally, senior defenseman Andy Katz came through with a huge hat-trick in the home half of the Hillel series.
Next up on the schedule was arguably the biggest game of the season for the Cougars as they traveled to the home of their division rivals, the TABC Storm, in a matchup notoriously referred to as the “Route 4 Rivalry.” The game certainly lived up to the hype. TABC and Frisch exchanged several goals, leaving Frisch trailing 3-2 at the end of the second period. Entering the third period, Frisch came out strong and determined to win the game. A few minutes into the third period, junior Jason Alter scored his second of the night to tie it up. Shortly after, seniors Neugroschel and J.J. Coren came together to score the game-winning goal with Neugroschel deflecting Coren’s beautiful pass between the legs of the goalie and into the net. Frisch held on to win the game by a score of 4-3, maintaining their momentum into the second half of the season.
The second half of the season started off strong for the Cougars. They hosted North Shore in the first of their two cross-conference games. Frisch made a statement by beating the Stars 9-0, led by outstanding performances by Eisner (three goals) and Jacob Hershenov (one goal, two assists). Frisch then visited SAR to match up for the second time this season. Again, the Cougars demonstrated how badly they wanted to win as they routed the Sting by a score of 4-1. This game featured goal by two defensemen, Levine and junior Ari Baruch. Another great goal scored that game came off the sick of Sammy Penn after a beautiful feed from senior Ian Welfeld.
For the next game, Frisch took a long bus ride to Long Island to play the second game of a Saturday night doubleheader at Rambam. There, Frisch dominated the court winning 4-1 behind two goals from Eisner and two assists from Penn.
Now back home, the Cougars hosted their three final home games of the regular season: Kushner, TABC and Ramaz. In the Kushner game, the Cougars showed their depth with two goals being produced by the junior line of Jonah Rubin and Judah Rolnick, with Frisch coming out with the 8-1 win.
The second game of the three-game homestand was the second half of the Frisch vs. TABC regular season series. At stake, potential first seed playoff position in the Western Conference and home court advantage until the championship. The game started off quick with none other than Eisner taking advantage of an early scoring chance less than halfway through the first period. TABC answered back ending the first period at 1-1. The score remained until the middle of the third period when junior defenseman Gabe Einhorn net one right off the faceoff to give Frisch the lead. A few minutes later, captain Aryeh Bloom was called for an interference penalty. Frisch did a great job killing off the penalty and Bloom, just seconds out of the box, stole the ball and ran coast to coast to seal the game with a snipe right over the goalie’s left shoulder to give Frisch the 3-1 win. This game clinched Frisch into the first seed playoff spot in the West.
The final two games consisted of a home series vs. Ramaz where the Cougars shut out the Rams twice by scores of 9-0 in Frisch and 8-0 in Ramaz. In this pair of games, the dynamic Alter-Eisner line recorded a combined six goals, bringing their season total to 40 goals from their line alone. Also in these final games, Frisch saw three goals from both the Coren-Neugroschel line and the defensive captain line of Bloom and Levine. The final goal of the Cougar’s season was scored by senior defenseman Jack Katz on a breakaway.
The first round of the playoffs for the Cougars was vs. the Kushner Cobras. The game started off strong for the Cougars, with two goals on the first two shifts. The first from Levine just 1:24 into the game, and the second coming one-timed off the stick of Jason Alter. With just 3.3 seconds left in the first, the Cougars struck for a third time, with a goal from Penn. The only goal of the second period was scored by Eisner, off the faceoff. In the third, Frisch would tack on two more, the first by Alter, and the final from Jonah Rubin, assisted by Einhorn to give the Cougars a 6-1 victory.
Next up, the team would host the HAFTR Hawks in an intense semi-final matchup. In the first period, both HAFTR and Frisch were getting great scoring opportunities. The first period ended in 0-0. Frisch finally broke the ice with 1:19 left in the second when Neugroschel put in a rebound from right in front of the net, giving Frisch the late 1-0 lead. With 6:45 left in the third period, HAFTR drew a huge penalty to put them on a much-needed power play. Frisch’s penalty kill did a fantastic job as they have done all season. Led by Welfeld, Levine, Bloom (when he was not in the box) and senior goalie, alternate captain Isaac Markovitz, only allowing two goals in all 17 games, Frisch’s penalty kill is one of the most effective in the league. And with just over 30 seconds left, Alter sealed the game by scoring a goal to give Frisch the win 2-0 and send the Frisch Cougars to the championship.
Bringing things full-circle, the Frisch Cougars ended up back at Lawrence Middle School to face off against the 16-0 DRS Wildcats who had just come off of a huge 5-0 win vs. TABC in the semi-finals. Throughout the first period, both DRS goalie Akiva Aryeh and Frisch goalie Markovitz stood strong not allowing anything past them. Although, the second period ended 1-0 in favor of DRS after an unfortunate deflection that found the back of the net on a misplayed clear. The Cougars, determined not to be disappointed for the second year in a row, came out strong in the third period, and with just over two minutes left in the game, Levine went bar-down on Aryeh to tie the game at one apiece.
This sent the game into an intense back and forth overtime. In what seemed like a bad turn of events for Frisch, they found themselves shorthanded with 1:07 left in OT. Just 17 seconds into the penalty Eisner stole the ball from the DRS defense and shot a laser low glove side and deep into the net to give Frisch their 17th win of the season and the championship. This short-handed effort appropriately earned Eisner the MVP of the game. With this win, the 2018-2019 varsity hockey Cougars earned the first undefeated season championship in Yeshivat Frisch history, to go along with the first ever JV championship, which this team recorded just two years prior.
By Isaac Markovitz
