The Upper Montgomery Lightning travel to Hagerstown on Monday night to face off against the Washington County Northstars. Game time is 7:00 pm at the Hagerstown Ice and Sports Complex. The Nortstars are one of the top teams in the Maryland Student Hockey League and come into the game with a 9-0 record overall, and a 7-0 record in the Monocacy Hockey Conference. This season, the Northstars have outscored their opponents by a margin of 61-9, and no team has scored more than two goals in a game against Washington County. It will be an extremely tough challenge for the young Lightning, but one that the team is very much looking forward to.
Coming off two consecutive losses against Richard Montgomery and Sherwood, Upper Montgomery will be looking to break its mini two game losing streak. The game against Washington County was intentionally scheduled to prepare the team for the upcoming Montgomery Hockey Conference division one playoffs where the Lightning will likely face a very high caliber team in the opening round. Washington County’s roster is littered with AAA and AA level travel student athletes and the team is very experienced with five seniors and five juniors likely to play in the game.
The Lightning may share the net minding duties in this non-conference game. Will Mellen who has started a majority of the varsity games in net, may get a break in this game. He had been stellar in net until the last two games where he has given up four and six goals in back-to-back games against higher level competition. In fairness, several of those goals have come off of odd numbered rushes up ice or turnovers directly in front of the goal. Landon Bernard who has played solid in net for the junior varsity may see some action in the game as well. The Northstars are averaging 6.78 goals a game and Upper Montgomery will need to play a hard defensive style to limit Washington County’s scoring chances. Washington County can get up and down the ice in a hurry and the Lightning will need multiple forwards skating hard and helping back on defense. The Lightning will also need to play a physical brand of hockey to take away time and space so that the Washington County student athletes do not have the opportunity to create fancy, dangling scoring opportunities.
Washington County is led on offense by a defender, junior Lucas Karlsson who has lit up the Maryland Student Hockey League. He plays AAA level travel hockey for the Little Caps and has (9 GP, 17 G, 6 A) to lead the Northstars in scoring. Next is Klayton Barr (9 GP, 10 G, 10 A), then Sammy Caesar (7 GP, 9 G, 7 A), Zane Hill (9 GP, 7 G, 9 A), Drew Glines (9 GP, 8 G, 8 A), Tyler Bjerklie (8 GP, 8 G, 5 A), and Ville Schoenborg who also plays AAA level travel hockey for the Little Caps (7 GP, 6 G 4 A). The Lightning will need to do everything possible to limit these high powered student athletes. In goal for the Northstars will be either Zachary Ciucci or Bryce Zeoli-Luisi. With the talent in front of them, it is hard to gauge their ability as the Northstars average only giving up 14 shots on goal and one goal against a game.
The one aspect to keep in mind is that the Northstars play very few good teams so some of their statistics are built up against much weaker competition. The two best teams the Northstars have faced, Oakdale (a 2-1 victory) and Walter Johnson (a 4-0 victory) were competitive games. A fair amount of stat building has occurred against the three teams at the bottom of the Monocacy Hockey Conference.
The Upper Montgomery defense should have a full complement of skaters for the game. With the entire lineup available to the coaching staff, expect the defensive pairings to be shuffled so that different pairing combinations can be evaluated as the team gears up for its final regular season conference game and then the playoffs. A constant for the team this season has been an outstanding penalty kill. Going into the box against the Northstars could be a game changer with the talent that Washington County will put out on their powerplay. The Botti brothers, James and Andrew, George Benedick, Ethan Hockey, and Andrew Gean will need to play aggressively to take away time and space and play the body to impede the Northstars forwards. However, they will need to be careful not to pinch at the offensive blue line and miss and turn the Northstars lose on odd skater rushes. The forwards will need to help out the defense and bust back defensively to cover open skaters. The speed of the Northstars will make things very difficult for the Upper Montgomery defense if Washington County can make the game a back and forth rushing up and down the ice affair.
Key for the Lightning this week will be having all three forward lines contributing. In the game against Sherwood on Friday night, all four goals were produced once again by the top line. The lack of scoring depth this season has hurt the team’s ability to separate in games. Against higher quality opponents in division one, having a full lineup is paramount to being able to match lines and compete with an evenly balanced lineup. Expect the top line to once again lead the way Chris Hassett (11 GP, 12 G, 15 A), playing center between Ryan Jacobson (9 GP, 7 G, 9 A), and Nathan Cassell (10 GP, 11 G, 6 A). The top line has been very effective creating turnovers in the offensive zone and converting those turnovers into high quality scoring chances. The second line will likely be Bradley Cupples (11 GP, 1 G, 10 A) playing center between Hunter Cameron (11 GP, 5 G, 5 A), and Olivia Robbins (8 GP, 1 G, 3 A). Depending upon how the game is progressing, Brandon Bernard and James Botti may also see shifts at forward on the second line as the coaching staff gets creative with line combinations to jump start the team’s offensive production. Getting offensive contribution from the defense by creating turnovers in the neutral zone, making quick, on target breakout passes, and by firing low hard shots on net while in the offensive zone will help generate additional offensive chances.
Upper Montgomery will make the division one Montgomery Hockey Conference playoff tournament. This is a first for the organization and an accomplishment which the team is proud of. But, the team should not be satisfied. Tournament seeding is at stake over the final two games of the season. Gaining the best seeding possible is now the goal. Playing a competitive game against Washington County will open the eyes of the voters who determine the league’s rankings and playoff seedings and will help solidify the team’s reputation as it grows and matures in future seasons.