One of the most anticipated games in the varsity hockey season was played Thursday night, December 4th, between the TABC Storm (3-0) and the Kushner Cobras (6-0-1). TABC returned home following road games in Ramaz and SAR, while Kushner was riding high after its overtime win at home against Frisch. In TABC’s first three games the team was not able to take an early lead, but this time, at home, the players looked to change that trend.
In the beginning of the 1st, Captain Aryeh Berman fired a rocket full-court shot that found the back of the net to give the Storm the early lead. After some back and forth play, the Storm team found itself on a power play. Daniel Levy found Yair Knoller, who made a quick deke and put the ball over the Kushner goalie’s shoulder on a backhand shot close to the net. The Storm kept the pressure on and their work paid off as Ari Fuchs made the game 3-0 on a beautiful shot from the point.
TABC took the momentum into the 2nd period which started with Daniel Levy finding Ari Fuchs wide open cutting in from the point and firing his second goal of the night top shelf. Captain Alex Malech scored the team’s next three goals, one of them on the power play, and Yair Knoller scored his second of the game to make the score 8-0 in the middle of the 3rd.
The game ended 8-1 with Kushner scoring during the second half of the final frame. Overall, it was a great team performance offensively and defensively by the Storm.
With this big victory in its rearview mirror, the Storm had a quick turnaround and played another solid team at home on Sunday, December 7th, the SAR Sting. TABC had handed the Sting team its only loss of the season, a 3-1 come-from-behind win at the SAR Hive. This game promised to have playoff intensity and it did not disappoint.
The game started out with both teams trading chances. However, in the middle of the first period, SAR got on the board first after some action in front of the net led to a loose ball being poked into the net. The Storm, though, did not sit back as Yehoshua Naor fired a rocket from the point off of a faceoff that found a way through to the back of the net, tying the game at 1. Goalie Rami Levine continued his excellent play, making some crucial saves to keep the score tied at 1. The intensity of the game kept growing for the remainder of the 1st period and continued into the 2nd.
A few minutes in, Josh Deschino found the puck in front and put it in the back of the net, scoring his first goal of his high school career. A little later in the 2nd, TABC found itself on a power play. After getting a few chances, Daniel Levy took the puck on the side of the net and patiently found a wide-open Yair Knoller who scored, one-timing the puck, to give the Storm a 3-1 lead. The Storm took the lead into the locker room, knowing that the Sting would come out even stronger in the 3rd.
Midway through the 3rd, Calev Minsky took the puck from the corner, made a few moves cutting to the middle, and took a beautiful wrist shot placing it in the top of the net, thereby extending the lead to three. With only minutes remaining, Ezra Schneier batted in a rebound to make the score 5-1.
The Storm are now 5-0 on the season and have continued to improve day by day. Up next, the Storm travel to JEC to take on the Thunder on December 15th.
By Jonah Ganchrow
