The Upper Montgomery Lightning bolt into Tuesday afternoon’s game against Wootton with two data points fresh in their mind. One, the team has now won three of their past four games. In each game that the team has been victorious, Upper Montgomery has given up either one or zero goals. To a person, the team would acknowledge that this past Friday’s 6-1 victory over the Sherwood Warriors was not their best effort. The Lightning finally found their legs in the second period in route to four consecutive goals and then opened up a comfortable lead. Second, in the previous fourteen years that the Montgomery Hockey Conference has existed, Upper Montgomery (or playing under the previous team name, Damascus, et al.) the program has never beaten the Wootton Patriots.
This is the year! The Lightning play Wootton in a home and home series split with Tuesday’s game played before the winter holiday break and concluding with the opening game after winter break on Friday, January 6. Historically, one of the best programs in the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League, the Patriots have fallen off over the past two seasons. Presently, the Patriots are one spot behind Upper Montgomery in the conference standings. While the Patriots long to return to the years of being a powerhouse along-side the Churchill Bulldogs, the Lightning are looking for a signature win to announce their arrival in the upper tier of the MHC.
Once again, Upper Montgomery’s leading scorers Nathan Cassel (6GP, 6G, 8A) and Chris Hassett (7GP, 6G, 7A) will need to carry the offensive load. The depth scoring this season has been excellent and shows just how much the team has matured over last season. Fourteen different skaters have scored a goal this season with ten of those skaters having found the net multiple times. Playing against a higher level of competition this season the team is averaging 5.25 goals a game.
The defense has also been more active offensively. Senior George Benedick continues to outpace his production from all prior years combined. He has picked up his scoring pace over his previous three seasons (6GP, 3G, 7A). Ethan Hockey, Andrew Botti, and Brady Berkhammer have at least five points each. Together, in eight games, the team’s defender have contributed (9G and 20A).
In goal, Landon Bernard will be looking to continue his strong performances. He has been very good in goal the past couple of weeks at both the varsity and junior varsity levels. He stopped 14 of 15 shots against Blair, just losing a shutout with less than a minute remaining in the game. Against Sherwood on Friday night, he stopped 21 of 22 shots. Bernard made an impressive and key save against Jeremy Isaacs, the Warriors high scoring forward, on a breakaway. Wootton is likely to start Jack Munini in one game and former Lightning goalie Will Mellen in the other game. Upper Montgomery will surely be on point in the game that Mellen starts. Both Wootton goalies have not played very well this season with a goals against over 5.00 and save percentages in the mid-.800s. Let’s hope that lack of success continues for two more weeks. Comparatively, Bernard has a goals against average of 3.75 and a save percentage of .851. For Bernard, his stats and play have gotten better as the season has progressed.
Wootton has some very talented student athletes in their program. The Patriots are led by a quartet of top-end skaters. Junior (16U AA) forward Grady Sellman leads the team is goals and points with (7GP, 8G, 3A). Speedy Conor Harris (18U AA) has (7GP, 3G, 4A). Junior IIhom Abdulaev, probably the Patriots most talented forward, has missed some games due to an injury suffered early in the season. Abdulaev (16U AA), (4GP, 3G, 3A) is a game time decision for Tuesday, but is likely back for the rematch in early January. Sam Hosier is an offensive minded defender. Hosier, a (16U AA) talent, has four goals in seven games. Wootton is a very physical team that has taken far, far too many penalties this season. Upper Montgomery will need to refrain from retaliating against the Patriots and must convert when the powerplay opportunities present. The Patriots are a young team and are weak defensively. Upper Montgomery should be able to take advantage of the Patriots back line. As with last week’s game, the Lightning will have to carefully determine when to press forward offensively. Keeping Wootton off the scoreboard will be the key to the outcome of the game.
The Lightning are starting to pile up the victories and get on a bit of a roll. This game against Wootton will go a long way in determining if the Lightning will finish as one of the top eight seeds in the conference and would then host a first round playoff game. If Upper Montgomery continues to play a strong, unselfish team game like the team has done the last couple of weeks against Blair and Sherwood, history could be made on Tuesday. The Lightning need to have the attitude of taking it right to the Patriots from the opening faceoff. The team needs to play with the lead and remove any doubt about who is the better team. A full effort for 45 minutes to snag the important victory. The Lightning need to get the win any way possible; high scoring, low scoring, it really does not matter. The only thing that is relevant is to win. Remain hungry, play with a swagger, and make other teams prove that they can beat you. Bring it home again this week Lightning!