(TABC sports) The TABC varsity hockey team hosted the SAR Sting for their third meeting of the year on Thursday night, February 22. TABC had made easy work of SAR in both regular season games and were looking to do more of the same in their first playoff match of the season. While the Storm had a bye in the first round, the Sting had to play their way in to earn this showdown at TABC, where they’ve had playoff success in previous seasons. Junior Shia Forgash received the nod in net this time, hoping to build off his MVP award at the JV level last year.

Most of the first period saw a deadlock, similar to when the Sting came to Teaneck at the beginning of the year. With less than four minutes to go until intermission, junior Bentzion Keiser won a battle for the loose ball in the corner, which eventually fell to classmate Aryeh Simon. Simon laced it into the top right corner to give the Storm their first lead of the night. Fast forward to the second period and the Sting were beginning to mount some pressure; still, Forgash was up to the task each time. After winning the face-off in their zone, senior Shay Fields went in on a breakaway with just the goaltender to beat and he scored, padding TABC’s lead to two. The Sting cut the deficit to one toward the end of the period, but seconds later, captain Matis Krause sent a blistering shot through the roof of the net to reclaim the two-goal lead. The third period saw TABC in total control with junior Aryeh Eizikovitz scoring an insurance goal with a rocket of a shot near half court and Simon adding his second tally of the night off a nifty setup from junior Aiden Rauzman.

TABC won by a final score of 5-2 and guaranteed that the league will crown a new champion this year. The Storm now shift their attention to the HANC Hurricanes for a semifinal date at home and a trip to the championship game on the line.