34 | SEPTEMBER 1 • 2022 

sports HIGHlights

T

here were 14 teams in 
the hockey competition 
at the JCC Maccabi 
Games in San Diego.
Only two — Philadelphia 
and Toronto — had players 
from one delegation. The 
other teams were made up of 
a potpourri of teen athletes 
from several delegations.
After being canceled in 2020 
and 2021 by the COVID-19 
pandemic, the Maccabi Games 
returned in August with many 
delegations unable to field 
their own teams.
Forward Aiden Ben-Ezra, 
defenseman Brennan Gesund, 
defenseman Lucas Hutten 
and forward Braylon Juszak 
from Detroit were joined on 
a hockey team by one player 
from Palisades, New Jersey, 
five players from St. Louis and 
four players from Westchester, 
New York.

The team’s coaches, actually 
fathers of players whose lone 
obligation in San Diego was to 
coach the team’s games, were 
Scott Hutten from Detroit 
and Daniel Mizukovski from 
Westchester.
The team never practiced.
Everyone got to know each 
other before the Maccabi 
Games through a Zoom meet-
ing and an Excel spreadsheet 
put together by Mizukovski 
that listed each player’s age, 
position, height, teams in 2021-
22, teams in 2022-23, contact 
information and, most impor-
tantly, strengths on the ice.
The two coaches chatted 
often before heading to San 
Diego, trying to put together 
the pieces and strategize.
All that craziness didn’t 
compare to the game the team 
played for third place and the 
bronze medal.

Facing a team made up 
of players from Chicago, 
Houston, Montreal and 
Springfield, Massachusetts, the 
Detroit team (let’s call it that 
to simplify matters) battled to 
a 4-4 tie through regulation 
time and a 10-minute, 3-on-3 
sudden death overtime period.
A 14-round shootout fol-
lowed the overtime period, 
with only one goal scored. 
Detroit lost.
“It seemed like that 
shootout went on forever,” 
Scott Hutten said. “I’m so 
proud of our team. I told the 
guys before the game to give 
it everything they had for 60 
minutes, and they’d create a 
lifetime of memories. They 
did that.”
Scott Hutten’s son Lucas 
Hutten had one shot in the 
marathon shootout. He can’t 
remember if it was saved or he 

missed the net.
“That shootout was crazy,” 
he said. “Both goalies stood on 
their head.”
Max Siegel was Detroit’s 
goalie in that game. The 
6-foot-2 netminder from 
Westchester shared the goal-
tending duties on the team 
with 5-1 Jayden Elias from 
Palisades, one of the few girls 
in the Maccabi Games hockey 
competition.
Detroit played seven games 
over four days, going 4-3.
It won three of four 
round-robin games, beat-
ing Alberta/Ft. Lauderdale/
Orange County/Pittsburgh 
10-0, losing 9-0 to eventual 
gold-medal winner Toronto, 
beating Vancouver/Virginia 
Beach/Western New York 
4-0 and beating Phoenix/San 
Diego 10-1.
A 6-1 loss to Philadelphia 

Four Detroit skaters lead the way on their multi-delegation team at the 
JCC Maccabi Games in San Diego.
West Coast Hockeytown

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brennan Gesund, Lucas Hutten, Braylon Juszak 
and Aiden Ben-Ezra.

Players listen to coach Scott Hutten as he makes a pointed comment 
during the JCC Maccabi Games hockey tournament.

PHOTO BY BRIAN JUSZAK

PHOTO BY LAURA HUTTEN

