The Frisch Cougars came into this year as a pre-season favorite. The year started out strong, but then got derailed a bit. After starting 5-0 and winning games in dominating fashion, they proceeded to lose three of their next four games. Two of those losses were very close games to the upstart and extremely talented division-leading SAR Sting. The loss that hurt more was away to TABC. While TABC might not be as deeply talented as usual, they are incredibly well coached and disciplined. Frisch circled the rematch on the calendar and was anxious to get its revenge.
The game was initially meant to be played Monday night but was iced out. In the Wednesday night makeup, the tables turned very quickly. Frisch dominated the first two shifts and controlled the play deep in the TABC zone, prompting Coach Norm to call a very quick timeout. Unfortunately for TABC, the timeout did not help much. Frisch continued to press and scored very quickly thereafter on a backhander by Ryan Eisner. The goal did not seem to clearly go in, but after a short discussion with Norm the ref pronounced a goal. The pressure continued as TABC tried clearing it out, but defenseman Sammy Wietschner kept it in and sent a wrist shot past the TABC goalie to quickly make it 2-0. At this point TABC started to mount a decent attack by sending its two offense-men strong after the ball and got a couple of shots off. However, Frisch buckled down and added two more goals before the period ended with another goal by Ryan Eisner and a goal on a beautiful two-on-one from Benjy Feintuch and Joe Tropp.
The 2nd period has notoriously been a struggle for Frisch, and coming out the locker room Frisch knew it could not let up against the six-time defending champs. In an effort to jump start things, TABC went to its backup goalie. But, again, Frisch had an unrelenting attack and did not let up. A couple of minutes into the period Ryan Eisner connected again completing the hat trick. Shortly thereafter, Frisch connected again on a PP goal by Bryan Alter making the score 6-0. Frisch was also able to fend off a couple of TABC PP’s. The final blow came on a TABC power play when Yehuda Hammerman beautifully intercepted a TABC cross pass and went in on a breakaway and top shelved a gorgeous shot making it 7-0. Frisch added one more before period end making it 8-0.
In the 3rd, Frisch was able to add one more goal to cap off the 9-0 victory. It was the first time in more than five years that Frisch was able to beat its rival in a JV contest. But more importantly, Frisch is hoping this huge win can propel a deep playoff run with hopes of capturing the school’s first hockey championship in 10 years and first-ever JV championship.
