YU Roller Hockey Rolls Through Pool Play At National Tournament
The Yeshiva University roller hockey team traveled up to Rochester, NY on Tuesday to take part in the NCRHA National Tournament. The annual event brings in the best roller hockey teams from across the country, and for the third straight year, YU received a bid. With three games of pool play on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by a single elimination playoff format starting Friday, the boys rested up on Tuesday in preparation for the big games ahead of them.
The first matchup of the tournament for YU was a 10 a.m. tilt against the James Madison University Dukes. Despite being out of their conference, the Macs had faced the Dukes in an exhibition game in November which Yeshiva won 5-2. YU started off the scoring early when Moshe Genuth found Ami Rosenfeld open in the middle for a tap in. Three more goals by the Ami-Geno line, as well as an impressive effort by Daniel Bordan, chased the JMU goalie and put Yeshiva up 5-0 after one period. The Macs followed with strong defense and a few more goals to deliver a dominating 8-0 win in game one of the tournament.
After a few hours of relaxation, the Macs were back at it for a 6:30 p.m. game against Missouri S&T Miners. The Miners, another out of conference opponent, played Yeshiva at the national tournament last year in Fargo, ND, where the Macs triumphed over them 7-3. The scoring once again was started off by Yeshiva thanks to a big takeaway by rookie defenseman Zev Markowitz, which he dished to Daniel Bordan. Another Bordan goal on some smooth stick-handling put YU up 2-0 going into the first intermission. A power play goal by Matthew Carl and two more scores from Bordan (a #HatTrick) gave YU a 6-0 advantage before the Miners finally broke through, ending goaltender Scott Weissman's amazing shutout streak of nearly 5 periods at Nationals. Regardless, the Macs finished strong and put away Missouri S&T 10-2, half of which were scored by Daniel Bordan, for win number two of the day.
The boys headed back to the hotel for an abbreviated BBQ and a few hours of sleep before their next game, a 10 a.m. contest versus the Sam Houston State University Bearkats. This would be the final game of pool play and would determine first place. SHSU put in an early first goal, but Yeshiva answered back with three in a row. The Macs got two more in the second before the Bearkats struck again. The third period was more of the same with Sam Houston striking first but YU answering with three, finishing off the Bearkats by a final score of 8-3. Matthew Carl picked up four goals on the game and Captain Benjy Shulman added three assists.
The Maccabees swept pool play with three big wins with an excellent 26 to 5 goal differential. They kicked off the playoffs with a matchup against ECHRA rival Syracuse University Orange. After quickly going down 3-0, and ending the 2nd period down 4-3 the Macs still had work to do. After a game-tying goal by Zev Markowitz, Orange quickly got two back and put the Macs back down 6-4. With less than six minutes left YU tied it back it up and took the game to overtime. In overtime Matthew “MC Hammer” Carl batted in a bouncing puck to win it for the Macs and bring them to the next round on Saturday night when they played in the Elite Eight against Endicott College.
Make sure to follow the YU Roller Hockey team on social media (@yurollerhockey) and watch their games LIVE at https://ncrha.org/page.php?page=ncrha-tv
