Although January 1st holds little very little significance on the Jewish Calendar, the symbolism of “New Year’s” carry’s a bit more weight in the Yeshiva League. The turn of the secular calendar is about the time when the playoff pictures in all sports leagues begin to come into focus and the teams start thinking about what they need to do to get in to the post-season or how they can play spoiler over everyone else. Straight ahead on the Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, Frisch clinches the JV Hockey West Division crown, TABC and HAFTR square off in a possible Varsity Hockey Championship showdown and the Yeshiva League puts on the Red, White and Blue down at the Maccabi games in Chile. Good Morning I’m Elliot Weiselberg.

For the second year in a row, Yeshiva League Hockey fans were treated to a Motzai Shabbos battle in Lawrence between the two expected varsity championship contenders, the HAFTR Hawks and the TABC Storm. The home team Hawks jumped out in front early with 2 first period goals but TABC would charge back to cut the deficit to one a short while later. The score would remain 2-1 until the last two minutes of the third, when TABC on the power play would put home the equalizer to send the game to Overtime. Just a few minutes later, the Storm would complete the comeback with Yair Knoller putting home the game-winner to keep the Storm undefeated on the season and once again walking away with bragging rights. But, lest we forget exactly how much significance there really is to be placed on a game like this: Last year, in Teaneck, TABC dominated the Hawks 6-1, but it would be the Hawks walking away with the league championship.

In other Varsity Hockey action, the OT loss was actually HAFTR’s 2nd of the week, dropping a 2-1 decision in the extra session to Rambam on Wednesday night on a Harry Tanen deflection thirty seconds into the period. DRS avenged an early season loss to Flatbush, 6-2 and Solomon Schechter got by HANC in overtime 3-2.

In JV Hockey, Frisch became the first team to clinch a division title with wins over Rambam and MTA over the past week. The undefeated Cougars will be guaranteed a top-3 spot in the playoffs and with 2 games left, will look to solidify one of the top-2 spots which could bring with it a semi-final home game. Standing in their way will be division rivals TABC and SAR, as well as the leaders of the 2 other divisions, all of whom are vying for the same privilege. DRS took two steps closer to the top coming back from an 0-2 deficit against HANC, Motzai Shabbos, for a 3-2 victory and are a win away from clinching the East Crown. In the Central, Flatbush played spoiler on JEC’s coronation last night, handing the Thunder their first loss and can potentially overtake them for the Central division title with a win over Rambam tomorrow night.

Moving over to basketball, while the action in the Yeshiva League JV and Varsity seasons is heating up down the stretch run, several of our boys are currently having the opportunity to enjoy a much warmer climate of their own representing the United States at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Chile. The star studded youth team, consisting of Yeshiva League players such as HAFTR’s Abie Perlow, TABC’s Tai Gerszberg, Ramaz’s Ben Rabinowitz, SAR’s Rafi Kubersky and DRS’ Gabriel Leifer to name a few will compete in a three round-robin game session before heading to a playoff game. The team led by Heschel head coach Evan Pickman opened up pool play yesterday dominating Israel by the score of 80-43. Good luck boys, bring home the gold.

The Court Report is on vacation this week, but we will be back next week with more news and scores. Tune in this coming Sunday at 7PM for an all new episode only on the Nachum Segal Network, Nachumsegal.com

And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.