The Upper Montgomery Lightning return to game action on Friday evening versus the Blair Blazers in the quarterfinal round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference Division Two playoffs. Game time is 9:40 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. Friday’s game will be an intriguing test for the young Lightning roster coming off of last week’s heroic performance and at the same time heartbreaking loss to Churchill in the Division One playoffs. Upper Montgomery nearly pulled off the greatest upset in the history of Maryland high school hockey going toe-to-toe with the mighty Churchill Bulldogs. Churchill has won nine of the past eleven state championships. They have also not lost in the county or state playoffs in nine seasons. The Lightning succumbed by one shot in a five round shootout after playing the perennial powerhouse even through both regulation and overtime.
The biggest question this week will be how the team responds to being so, so close to qualifying for the state playoffs? Can the team put last week’s heartbreak behind them and come out and play with a similar effort? The regular season matchup against Blair (a 9-1 victory) is not a good indicator of how the playoff game will turn out. Blair will have all three of its premier forwards available for Friday’s game. That trio is very dangerous and are able to win games for the Blazers by themselves covering up a lot of the Blazers’ shortcomings.
In goal, Landon Bernard will be looking to build off of his best performance ever for the Lightning. Holding Churchill to only one goal through 50 minutes of action and stopping two shootout attempts by AAA skaters. He was fabulous last week and one of the primary reasons that the Lightning even had an opportunity to win the contest. Upper Montgomery will have a distinct advantage in goal this week. Lily Bendavid will tend the net for Blair. She has won her last two starts fairly easily. Her statistics for the season are rather pedestrian. Her record is three wins and ten losses. She has a 6.92 goals against average and a .760 save percentage. In contrast, Bernard’s record is 7-6-2. He has a 3.53 goals against average and an .868 save percentage. In Upper Montgomery’s two playoff games his statistics are an eye popping 0.96 goals against average and a .966 save percentage, stopping 56 of 58 shots on goal.
Blair has three very high-end forwards, Chris Birchard (11GP, 13G, 7A), Alex Birchard (12GP, 7G, 11A), and Michael Humphreys (6GP, 10G, 3A). These three seniors all play 18U AA travel hockey and are very offensive minded. They will be hard to miss on the ice. Their speed and singular focus on offense can be hard for opponents to play against. Upper Montgomery will have to carefully determine when to press forward offensively while these three student athletes are on the ice. Their counter attack style of play often leads to multiple odd skater rushes each game. The Lightning defense will need to recognize which student athletes are on the ice and adjust quickly or else the Blazers will burn them in transition and score goals.
Upper Montgomery’s offense should be able to find the net against Blair. The core of the Lightning’s offense will be on the ice Friday led by junior center Chris Hassett, the team’s leading scorer (13GP, 10G, 17A). Joining Hassett on the top line is likely to be Hunter Cameron with a rotation on left wing. Cameron scored in overtime against St. Johns two weeks ago to provide Upper Montgomery with the team’s first ever Division One playoff victory. Centering the second line will be Ryan Jacobson (8GP, 10G, 3A). He is likely to play with Brandon Bernard (12GP, 8G, 3A) with another rotation on right wing. Bradley Cupples will center the third line as well as taking some shifts at wing on the top two lines. Expect Henry Honacki, Josh Nadler, and Adam Levine to receive periodic playing time throughout the game as well.
On defense, Upper Montgomery will have its top two defenders log a significant amount of ice time. Senior captain George Benedick (13GP, 5G, 8A) will be looking to extend his Lightning career if Upper Montgomery is able to secure the win. Andrew Botti (12GP, 3G, 4A) will likely pair with Benedick whenever Blair’s big three forwards are on the ice. Stephen Shkeda will hope to extend his career games played record. Shkeda has played in the most career games of any Upper Montgomery student athlete. He will play in his 80th career game on Friday evening. His scrappy, energetic play will be a boost to the defensive corps.
To advance to the semifinals of the Montgomery Hockey Conference Division Two playoffs, Upper Montgomery needs to play a complete game and not give up too many high quality scoring chances to the Blazers. If Upper Montgomery is able to limit Blair’s offensive production, the Lightning should be able to find the net enough to come away with the victory. In the playoffs, the games are almost always lower scoring, tight checking affairs. If Upper Montgomery completes and plays its guts out like the team did last week, the Lightning should be able to book a spot in next week’s Division Two semifinal against Sherwood. A win would also advance the team farther this year than last season when the Lightning lost in the quarterfinal round of the Division Two playoffs. Go Bolts!