The Upper Montgomery Lightning return to the ice on Monday afternoon, October 31st to take on the BCC Barons. Game time is 5:10 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. For the Lightning, it is game three of a four game gauntlet to start the season where Upper Mongomery will play against four of the top teams in the state, including the top three ranked teams in Montgomery County. Monday’s game will be another test for the team to see how they stack up against top competition.
The netminder dual will be one to watch. Landon Bernard played very well in last week’s loss to Urbana and he posted a shutout of the DC Stars in last week’s junior varsity tilt. For BCC it will surely be Graham McGrath White, who has a stellar 1.52 goals against average and a .921 save percentage through two games of the young season. Maybe working in the Lightning’s favor is that McGrath White plays with Lightning alternate captain Hunter Cameron on their AA level external travel team. The book on McGrath White is that he is a tall and athletic netminder who relies more on his athleticism and talent than positioning and technique.
On defense the Lightning must stop pressing forward and rushing defenders up ice. In certain situations, the defense must give up the blue line and fall back on defense. There have been too many pinches at the blue line that have missed. This aggressive nature has created multiple odd skater rushes up ice for the opposition. In last week’s game, Urbana had a half dozen two on one or three on one rushes. The return of George Benedick to the lineup this week and having Brady Berkhammer available will help. When the Lightning play a more defensively sound and compact system through the neutral zone, the team plays better and limits the opposing team’s offensive chances. The team is also able to create turnovers that lead to their own odd skater chances. Playing sound defensive hockey will be critical to stopping the Barons who scored ten goals against Blair this past Friday evening.
BCC’s defense is led by Graham LeBlance, a senior who plays AA level travel hockey. Thus far through two games, he has two goals and two assists on the season. He is joined on defense by Johnny Brunn, a smooth skating junior who had a hat-trick in the Barons last game, the lopsided victory over Blair. Experienced upperclass defenders, Jake Williams, Alex Elias, and Sebastian Harrison round out a solid core that has only allowed three goals through the two games. The BCC defense is tall and difficult to move around because of their size and length.
On offense, the Lightning need a full lineup to play in the game to fully evaluate line combinations and if they are more potent on offensive this season. Against both Walter Johnson and Urbana, the team was missing so many student athletes it was hard to judge the offense. As the games progressed the team tired in each game and affected the outcomes of each game. Ryan Jacobson leads the team with four goals through two games, scoring two goals in both games. It is clear that he is better utilizing his speed this season which is causing trouble for opposing defenders. Upper Montgomery also has goals from Olivia Robbins, Brad Cupples, and Philip Shkeda, who scored his first career high school goal to open the scoring against Urbana. With illness and injury moving through the Lightning lineup over the past week, the coaches are hoping to have close to a full roster when facing the Barons.
BCC’s offense goes through its team leader, senior Henry Caldicott. Caldicott is coming off of a two goal performance against Blair. His running mates are Hank Blumberg, Matthew Duffy, and Alexsander Talty, all of whom are off to fast starts with multiple points in the Blair game. Having played against BCC in spring league hockey, the Lightning should be familiar with the talent of some of the BCC student athletes.
Special teams are an area where the Lightning need to improve really fast or the season will quickly get away. In fairness, the team having only half a lineup for both the Walter Johnson game and the Urbana game certainly has contributed to the penalty killing difficulties. The opposition has scored on three out of four powerplay opportunities in each game. On the powerplay, the Lightning have only found the net one time.
The Lightning are hoping to spook the Barons on Halloween evening and come away with their first victory of the season. The team keeps improving through the rankings by playing competitive games against the top tier teams. Now it’s time to take one of the top teams down to the wire, or better yet, spring the upset and announce the program’s arrival.