(Yavneh Sports) On Sunday, February 26, the SAR Sting and the Yavneh Redhawks together with their fans piled into The Frisch School gymnasium for an exciting YMSSA boys hockey blue division championship game. After the pre-game nerves filled the room and the national anthems were sung, puck drop was underway. The Yavneh Redhawks came out strong and controlled the play through most of the first period. They drew an early first period penalty, which SAR was able to kill off. But the second penalty of the period ended up being too much.

After working the puck around in their offensive zone, alternate captain Sammy Pearlman shifted his angle slightly and sniped a shot past SAR’s goalie to put Yavneh up 1-0 with 4:46 to go in the first period. But in the second period, SAR came out ready to work. Just 34 seconds into the period, SAR was able to keep the puck in their offensive zone, pass across the zone and rip a quick turnaround shot to tie the game up at one. And there the score remained for quite a while. Back and forth the game went—a 1-1 tie for all of the second period. Both goalies, Daniel Kolb for SAR and Zac Nussbaum for Yavneh, came up big for both teams and it seemed like no one would be able to score, until finally Charlie Butler scored most of the way through the third period. Yavneh’s captain and points leader, Butler received a great pass from Pearlman that led to a hard shot from the point that found its way past Kolb with 7:37 to go in the game.

Yavneh wasn’t done. Two and a half minutes later, Adin Katler, another Yavneh captain, gave the Redhawks some breathing room with a wrap-around goal to put Yavneh up 3-1 with 5:02 remaining. With four minutes to go, SAR committed a penalty, allowing Yavneh to kill some time during their power play, while also working the ball around for another insurance goal. Their patience and beautiful power play paid off with a perfect pass from Katler to Butler, to seventh grader Pacey Hornblass for the tip-in with 2:57 to go in the game. What better way to close out the season, than with Butler, sealing the deal with an empty net goal with 1:30 left to the game, leading Yavneh to victory with the final score of 5-1. Congratulations to both SAR and Yavneh on a great season. SAR kept with Yavneh through two periods but ultimately, the Redhawks were able to pull away with the championship title.

Thank you to Coach Yaniv Besterman for working tirelessly with the Redhawks hockey team and helping the boys believe in themselves and their team. They came together to play for their coach, for each other and for their school. The team created memories they will never forget.