Hockey: Jack Rabinowitz talks big, plays bigger in Lower Merion win over Haverford
ASTON – There is a shared belief among Lower Merion hockey players that they can do serious damage in the postseason. When the Aces are whole, they can handle anybody in the ICSHL Central.
Behind Will Zeger’s stellar goaltending, the fifth-seeded Aces blanked No. 1 Haverford, 4-0, in the semifinal round of the league tournament Tuesday evening at IceWorks. Lower Merion faces the winner of the game between No. 6 Radnor and No. 7 Penncrest, which ended too late for this edition of the Daily Times.
Haverford was the defending Central League champion. Last week, when Lower Merion and Haverford met in the penultimate game of the regular season, the Aces were missing key contributors. The result was a lopsided 6-1 defeat which helped the Fords claim the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
On the next night, the Aces upset first-place Conestoga with a full roster. The 6-2 victory was precisely the sort of momentum the Aces wanted to establish heading into the tournament.
“I think when we have all of our players, we are a completely different team,” coach Dan Harkins said. “They worked hard all year. I think this year has been a turnaround season for them. I have five seniors and they all worked extremely hard this year and they were looking for this opportunity to do something they haven’t had a chance to do in the last couple of years. So they stepped up, they did that work and now they’re seeing the fruits of all their labor, you know?”
The Aces handled Springfield in Monday’s opening round, 5-2, scoring three times in the first period. Tuesday’s first period was a scoreless affair, but it was evident that Lower Merion had better tempo. The Aces’ diligence paid off three minutes into the second when Jack Rabinowitz received a pass from Harrison Crane and nailed a slapshot past Haverford goalie Andrew Henderson.
“I mean, we knew from the beginning we had to come out and get that first goal,” Rabinowitz said. “That was the biggest goal of the game and from there, we just kept it going. We knew that we had to get momentum our way. Haverford is a pretty good team and they have some good skaters. So our game plan was pretty much just shut them down, take away the passes in the middle of the ice, get the boys going and that’s exactly what we did. We got shots on net and capitalized.”
After the Aces went ahead 3-0, the Fords were in all-out attack mode. They had the lone power play of the game late in the second period. It carried into the third, but the Fords could not solve Zeger in net.
“Our defense played great this game,” Rabinowitz said. “The boys came ready to play, you know? Every single person came ready.”
Zeger was impenetrable. He saved 28 shots on the way to recording the shutout. In the win against Springfield, he registered 23 saves. In the Haverford game last week, he entered in the second period and thwarted 17 of 18 shots.
“Even if I let up early goals, I think I always stay pretty focused out there,” Zeger said. “It’s all about the preparation before the game. I thought I did pretty well in that game last week and also, a lot of those guys are on my club team, too, so I know a lot of the guys on Haverford pretty well.”
Rabinowitz isn’t surprised by Zeger’s performances so far in the postseason.
“He’s a brick wall,” he said. “He’s the base of our team, everything revolves around him. If he’s having a good game, we’re all having a good game.”
Rabinowitz was the primary assist on goals by Noam Nisimi and Toby Myers late in the second period. Dylan Peterson scored an empty netter, his third tally of the tournament, in the waning seconds of regulation.
“We rely heavily on Jack but we rely on everybody, really, because we have a short bench,” Harkins said. “Everybody gets quality minutes. I always say that we all need to pull the rope in the same direction. Jack and Sam Flood and Noam have all scored some really big goals for us this year. And our defense has been really strong. I think Dylan Peterson is probably the top defenseman that I’ve seen in the Central League this year. And the other four defensemen that we march back there are just as good.”
The Fords controlled possession in the third period and pulled Henderson around the three minute mark. But even with the extra skater, they couldn’t get a puck past Zeger.
“We’re the underdogs, we always come ready to play,” Rabinowitz said. “We know teams look at us like, oh, it’s just LM. And we want to run right through them. We’re coming.”
