A shorthanded Upper Montgomery Lightning will face off against perennial powerhouse BCC Friday night at Rockville Ice Arena. Game time is 8:50 pm. It will be an enormously difficult task for the team playing an opponent that Upper Montgomery has never beaten. Last season’s Halloween surprise garnered the program’s first ever points against BCC by way of a 2-2 tie. The team’s rematch at the end of the last regular season was an 8-2 blowout victory for the Barons who were clearly upset with their early season performance. Upper Montgomery will be missing many student athletes for this contest, and it will be incumbent on the experienced student athletes in attendance to play superbly.
Upper Montgomery’s season has not gone as anticipated. The team has struggled mightily on defense and is winless at 0-4 on the season. With a few different plays in each game, the team very well might be 4-0. BCC has lost its first two games of the season. Both losses have been competitive games against the top two teams in the county, Churchill and Walter Johnson. The major challenge this season for Upper Montgomery was going to be how to navigate all of the highly talented student athletes missing games when they were out-of-town with their external travel teams. This week will the toughest test yet as the team will be utilizing many junior varsity student athletes in regular roles throughout the game.
Initially, two troubling trends had developed over the first couple of games this season. One, a lack of goal scoring, but that seemed to have been rectified in Tuesday’s 9-7 loss to Sherwood, a game in which Upper Montgomery led 3-0 after the first period and 4-1 mid-way through the game. The second issue is poor third periods. This may be a result of the top skaters having to play excessive minutes each game as the team played with a short bench throughout the season. The Lightning have a minus eleven goal differential in the third period in the team’s first four games of the season.
In Tuesday’s game against Sherwood several student athletes had strong offensive games. Nathan Cassel was especially good and had five points with two goals and three assists. Chris Hassett also recorded five points, similarly scoring two goals and three assists. Henry Honacki had the best varsity game of his career with a three point game, one goal and two assists. However, the defense was exposed over the second half of the game with Grayson Wincker and Noi Jonasson skating around the Lightning defense and into high danger areas. Winckler had a hat-trick coupled with three assists and Jonasson had two goals and two assists. Upper Montgomery must play a grittier defensive style and compete harder to limit the opposing team’s chances.
For the Lightning, returning to the lineup will be Bradley Cupples who missed Tuesday’s game. Olivia Robbins will make her season debut. Both Cupples and Robbins play a north/south style of hockey and play positionally sound defense. Both traits should help immensely against the Barons.
BCC is led offensively by a trio of highly talented skaters, centers Matthew Duffy and Sebastian Harrison, and winger Alexsandr Talty. BCC also receives significant contributions of offense generated by its two premium defenders, Danny Loughlin and Collin Eccles. Upper Montgomery will have its hands full defensively while still missing Andrew Botti who will miss the game out injured.
In net for Upper Montgomery will be senior Landon Bernard who will be looking to bounce back from Tuesday’s performance against Sherwood. He will be opposed by Viviene Boyle who has stopped a lot of shots against Churchill (30) and Walter Johnson (34). Even though she let in six goals each game, she has kept her team in both games and given the Barons a chance to win. Her .842 save percentage is very respectable especially given the talented opposition she has faced in the first two games of the season.
Missing the student athletes who will be out-of-town with their external travel teams, maybe Upper Montgomery will be forced to change its style of play to remain competitive. It could be a blessing in disguise in that the team will need to be more cohesive defensively and not press up the ice looking for offensive chances and goals. It’s still early in the season and the Lightning are looking to right the ship. Not dissimilar from last season where the team struggled early and then roared back to finish one shootout goal short of qualifying for the state playoffs for the first time in program history. Will this season be a repeat? A slow start followed by a blazing late season playoff run…On Friday, one of the two winless teams will break through with an all-important initial win of the season.
#UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!