The Upper Montgomery Lightning play their final regular season game of the 2021-2022 season this coming Friday night versus the St. Johns Cadets. The Cadets are a deep and experienced team and could pose matchup problems for the Lightning. St. Johns comes into the game with a 5-4 record on the season having very tightly played the top teams in the Montgomery Hockey Conference. St. Johns is riding a three game winning streak and has won five of their last six games after a slow start to the season. St. Johns is coming off a come from behind win against Northwest in which they scored three goals in the third period. It will be another stiff challenge for the young Lightning, but one that the team is very much looking forward to as they look to rebound from Monday’s loss in Hagerstown against Washington County.
Will Mellen gets the start in net for the Lightning. He will be looking to bounce back from his toughest two outings of the season. Mellen enters the game with a 4-3-1 record on the season, a 2.13 goals against average, and a .908 save percentage. Prior to his two most recent games, he had been stellar in net. Upper Montgomery will need to play a hard, physical, defensive style to limit St. Johns’ scoring chances and take away time and space so that the Cadets do not control the tempo and pace of the game.
This weekend is a big weekend for travel team tournaments. St. Johns will be missing several key student athletes. When all members of the team are present, the Cadets are led by junior defender John Carney who has seven goals in five games. St. Johns has multiple AAA level travel team student athletes and a bunch of AA level travel team student athletes. After Carney, the Cadets have evenly dispersed scoring depth. In goal for the Cadets is expected to be senior Julian Goodfellow who has played well this year with a 2-2 record, a 2.50 goals against average, and a .884 save percentage.
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 the playoffs. A constant for the team this season has been an outstanding penalty kill which needs to continue to excel. Upper Montgomery has killed off 28 straight shorthanded situations and has killed off 40 of 43 chances on the season, 93%. The Botti brothers, James and Andrew, George Benedick, Ethan Hockey, and Andrew Gean will need to play aggressively to take away time and space from the Cadets forwards. They must play the body to impede and frustrate the Cadets forwards. However, they will need to be careful not to pinch at the offensive blue line giving the Cadets odd skater rushes up ice. The Lightning forwards will need to help out the defense and bust back defensively to cover open skaters.
Upper Montgomery will be missing two key contributors on offense with Ryan Jacobson and Nathan Cassel both out of the lineup with their travel teams out-of-town. Losing this offensive firepower (Ryan Jacobson ’10 GP, 7 G, 9 A’, and Nathan Cassell ’10 GP, 11 G, 6 A’) will present opportunities for other forwards to grab additional ice time based upon their performance in the early portion of the game. Expect the coaching staff to tinker with the lines to find line combinations that provide chemistry and are effective against the Cadets. The lack of scoring depth this season has hurt the team’s ability to separate in games. With Jacobson and Cassel absent, expect much to be asked of top line center Chris Hassett to lead the way (12 GP, 13 G, 15 A). Hunter Cameron (12 GP, 5 G, 6 A) and Bradley Cupples (12 GP, 1 G, 11 A) will need to shoulder more of the load against St. Johns. Depending upon the flow of the game, James Botti may see shifts at forward if the offense has a hard time getting started and generating chances. Getting offensive contribution from the defense could be the difference in this game as goals may be tough to come by.
With the final conference rankings expected to be released late Monday evening, Upper Montgomery should find out on Tuesday which team it will face in the first round of the division one Montgomery Hockey Conference playoff tournament. The opening round game is anticipated to be played on Friday, February 4th with the time and location to be determined. A win or tie versus the Cadets could change the Upper Montgomery’s ranking enough to avoid having to play one of the top teams in the conference in the opening round of the tournament. Tournament seeding is at stake. Qualifying for the division one playoffs had been the one goal for the team this season and doing so is an accomplishment of which the team is proud of. But now that they have qualified for the playoffs, the team is not satisfied. Going toe to toe with St. Johns will open the eyes of the voters who determine the league’s rankings and will help solidify the team’s reputation as an up and coming team in future seasons.
You are invited to join the Lightning program for Senior Night on Friday where seniors James Botti, Adarsh Nair, and Joshua Miller will be honored. The ceremony will begin at approximately 8:45 pm just before puck drop.