The Upper Montgomery junior varsity concludes its regular season on Tuesday morning versus the Churchill Bulldogs. With a victory the Lightning will end the regular season in second place in the conference standings. A tie will also secure a home game in the quarterfinal round of the upcoming playoffs. A loss would drop Upper Montgonery to fifth place in the regular season standings. Game time is 11:40 am at Skate Frederick.
The Lightning have begun playing their best hockey of the season at just the right time. Coming off of two straight convincing victories over Rockville and Northwest, Upper Montgomery has played its way into the top half of the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity standings. The team currently has a 4-3 conference record and is 4-4-2 on the season. It is a great turnaround from last season’s 1-6-1 record where the Lightning were continuously outplayed and finished in last place in the junior varsity standings.
Churchill comes into the game in last place in the conference standings with only one win on the season, in its season opener. However, Upper Montgonery should not be overconfident as Churchill has played much better of late. While the Bulldogs have scored the least number of goals in the conference and have given up the most goals in the conference, all of the junior varsity teams are evenly matched. In net for the Bulldogs will be Cameron Shure. Shure is an inexperienced 9th grader and has been let down by the Bulldog defense all season. He comes into the game with a 7.67 goals against average and a .727 save percentage. On Friday night, he played well giving up four goals to a talented Whitman squad.
In net for the Lightning will be Landon Bernard who is coming off of three straight strong performances. Bernard has lowered his season goals against average to 3.28 and his save percentage has climbed to .871. He personal statistics would be a 2.74 goals against average and a .887 save percentage if the game against Landon School was not included.
On defense the Lightning will likely skate with four defenders. Andrew Gean and Stephen Shkeda will play down from varsity to be a stabilizing influence for the young Lightning junior varsity defense of Patrick Sell and Cole Howerton. Against Northwest Gean played by far his best game of the season. Shkeda’s tenacity in defending has been valuable in winning pucks and helping clear the defensive zone. It is anticipated that Josh Nadler, Bradley Cupples, and Brandon Bernard could also skate some shifts on defense rotating out of the center position. The defense will be looking to keep the Bulldogs offense at bay and continue their season long offensive struggles. The leading scorer for Churchill is Allen Huebl who has one goal and three assists on the season.
Offensively, the Lightning’s offense has begun to kick into gear. With fourteen goals in its last three games, the team is finally getting more balanced scoring to take the pressure off the defense. Brandon Bernard leads the team in scoring (9 GP, 5 G, 8 A). Bradley Cupples, coming off a strong game in his most recent game versus Rockville with two goals and an assist, is next with (6 GP, 3 G, 4 A). Joshua Miller leads the team with five goals in ten games including several outstanding solo breakaway goals. Josh Nadler has chipped in and scored three goals so far in his first high school season. Then, the scoring thins considerably. The Lightning need the additional depth scoring to continue if they are going to beat Churchill. Lately, Lucas Eyman, James Hyman, and Henry Honacki have found the back of the net. Controlling play right from the beginning of the game will demoralize the Bulldogs. The longer that Churchill remains in the game, the more confidence they will gain. It will be up to the Lightning to force play and impose their will on the last place Bulldogs.