Hat Trick Nets A Three-Peat

W

hen the Detroit age
15-16 ream first saw
the rival Montreal team get
off the bus, they thought
there was no hope.
Montreal, which lost to
Detroit in the semifinals in
1998 when hometown
Detroit won its first gold
medal, looked bigger and
stronger. The hope for a
Detroit "three-peat"
seemed dashed.
"I'm looking at them
and I go, 'Oh shoot,
they've brought in the
studs,"' said Coach Steve
Friedman. "They're here to
win a gold medal, clearly.
And these guys were hock-
ey players, you could tell.
One guy had a beard.
These kids were monsters.
"The younger guys on
our team were looking at the
older guys, saying, At least
you guys won two years in a
row.' Like there's no chance."
But Detroit bested
Montreal twice with smart
play, good coaching and
dogged determination.
Detroit's first game of
the tournament, against
Metro West, was a near-
disaster, but Detroit man-

aged a 1-1 tie. "Our
goalie, Kevin Ben-Ezra,
was absolutely spectacu-
lar," said Friedman.
Otherwise, we probably
would have lost."
Detroit's coaches made
adjustments moving older,
more disciplined players
back to defense and
younger skaters to forward.
Detroit improved to a 3-0-
1 record, and met
Montreal for the first time
in the fifth game.
Montreal jumped ahead
2-0, and led 3-1 with
about seven minutes left.
"Then, out of nowhere,"
said Friedman, "Joel
Fenkell scores three goals
for us in a minute and 20
seconds, with the moves of
Wayne Gretzky and Sergei
Federov combined. He is a
remarkable player and he
just set Montreal back on
their heels."
Fenkell's hat trick put
Detroit ahead 4-3, and
Detroit added two more
unanswered goals for a 6-3
victory.
"Montreal was so upset
that there was literally a
brawl at the end of the

game," said Friedman.
"They absolutely lost it. A
17-year-old assistant coach
came flying out of the
bench. [He was ejected
from the tournament.] At
that point we knew, come
the final, it was going to
be a major battle."
Two days later, Detroit
faced Montreal again in the
gold medal game. Detroit
jumped off to a 3-1 lead and
was up 5-4 with a minute
left, before scoring an
empty-net goal to win 6-4.
"The final game was a
great hockey game, very
intense, very competitive,"
said Coach Rick Zussman.
"As long as it was close, I
don't think anyone was
going to do anything too
foolish."
But when they realized
they would lose, some
Montreal players got out of
hand, "necktie" tackling a
Detroit player on a break-
away and egging on the
Detroit team after the game.
"It was the most obnox-
ious behavior and bad sports-
manship I've ever seen," said
Friedman. "The Montreal
coaches had no control over

some of their kids."
Steve Kessler, physical
education director of the
Staten Island JCC, was
one of two people in
charge of sports for the
Games. Although he was
not present at the rink, he
said, "It was a very com-
petitive tournament and a
very competitive gold
medal game. It was well-
played and close.
"During the games,"
Kessler said, "players were
penalized appropriately.
Detroit, who deserved to
win, ended up winning."
Detroit coaches were
concerned that the conflict
would spill over into the
final evening's events. "To
Steve Friedman's credit," said
Zussman, "he talked to all
the Montreal guys prior to
closing ceremonies. He
seemed to get most of them
to put things in perspective."
The three-peat complete,
the Detroit team celebrated
at closing ceremonies at the
Statue of Liberty.
"When it is all said and
done," said Friedman, "the
kids had a dream time." ❑

— David Sachs

A Golden Start For Younger Team

T

he age 13-14 team
swept through their
games, winning the gold
with a 8-0 record.
In the first 30 seconds
of their first game, Detroit
scored two goals and didn't
look back.
"The young team was
together from the very
beginning," said Coach
Rick Zussman. "Four of
them play ice hockey on
the same team, so they
knew each other and were
good friends. From the
beginning, they dominated
the tournament."
Added Coach Steve

Friedman, "Our first line
of Michael Fenkell, Eric
Lubanski, Brad Friedman
and Brandon Schram was
strong, relative to the com-
petition.
"Most of the teams and
coaches we competed
against at Staten Island
and even the parents
watching the younger guys
were very complimentary
of their quality of sports-
manship as well as the
quality of hockey," said
Friedman. "They really
appreciated how cleanly
we were playing and how
these kids were a bunch of

mentshes, and how every,
one was having fun."
"The team was not
shocked to be undefeated,"
he added. "They had a lot
of their training against
the older team at the new
JCC facility, so they were
well-prepared."
The $1 million, state-
of-the-art InLine Hockey
Center at the West
Bloomfield JCC was the
result of Friedman's initia-
tive. "It's going to be help-
ful for developing a lot of
great talent and for teach-
ing a lot of kids how to
play the game," he said.

A traveling in-line
hockey league for kids ages
8-16 will begin at the JCC
Oct. 1 to serve as a train-
ing ground for Maccabi
competition, he said.
Added Zussman, "I
don't know if Maccabi will
host a younger tournament
again next year, depending
on the site and what they
do, but right now we're
losing three kids off the
older ream. Four or five of
the younger kids will move
up. The experience this
year will be great for
them." ❑

— David Sachs

Intensity
And Victory

JOEL FENKELL

Special to the Jewish News

O

n Sunday night, Aug. 20, we
went to opening ceremonies

at Madison Square Garden and
then prepared for four days of
intense in-line hockey.
The past two years, we have
won the gold medal
and coming in we
were favored to win.
It would be tough,
considering we lost
many of our good
players from last
year. But we knew
we had the heart and Joel Fenkell
talent to win.
The next morn-
ing, our first game vs. Metro West
proved to be our worst. We
played terribly. We couldn't find a
spark or how to play on the rink,
which did not compare in quality
to ours at the West Bloomfield
Jewish Community Center. We
managed a 1-1 tie, but were still
disappointed.
We then played Miami. We
started out slow again but then
opened it up and won 9-2. We
fininshed against Monmouth. We
were all tired, but pulled it off in
the end, winning 3-1.
On Tuesday, we beat
Wilmington easily, 12-3.. But, for
our second game, we faced the
gritty Montreal team. After being
down 3-1, we bounced back with
five goals, defeating them 6-3.
We crushed Rockland 10-0,
and Staten Island 8-0 on
Wednesday, making us 6-0-1
going into the playoffs.
On Thursday, we beat
Wilmington in the quarterfinals,
10-0. In the semifinals, we defeat-
ed Metro West, 6-0.
This set the stage for the gold
medal game against Montreal,
against whom we had the come-
from-behind victory on Tuesday.
\X1e jumped ahead 3-1 and hung
on to win 6-4 to win the gold
medal three years in a row — a
"three-peat!" ❑

Joel Fenkell of Bloomfield Hills is

a forward with Detroit's age 15-16
in-line hockey team.

9/8

2000

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