Joe Klein, part of a group of classmates at the rink, said the team’s credo was “Play hard to pray hard” and likened the team to a biblical David bringing down Goliaths.

“They live for the fact that they’re going to be the underdogs,” said Akiva Blumenthal, another Yeshiva student.

After all, most of the teams at the rink hailed from large universities like Penn State and the University of Delaware, with well-established hockey programs that receive money from their schools and are unencumbered by religious strictures.

The Yeshiva team showed up at the rink before 7 a.m. and squeezed into a cramped locker room. Putting on a uniform included pulling a helmet over a yarmulke and strapping padding over a white, tasseled religious shawl, known as a tallit.

They had already finished a lengthy prayer session and were facing a grueling three games.

Last season, they played in Division 4, which is for newer teams. They lost one game all season and won the league championship, earning them the right to play this season in the more competitive Division 2 league against teams like Boston University and Northeastern.

Still, they are currently in first place and are a favorite to win the league championships in March in Pennsylvania. The Maccabees will most likely qualify for the national championship in Florida in April, said William Bourque, the commissioner of the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association, and their performance there could enable them to move to the top division, whose teams have bigger budgets that include team buses and plane travel to games.