The Upper Montgomery Lightning face off on Tuesday afternoon against last year’s state champion, the Walter Johnson Wildcats. Although this year’s Wildcats are not as loaded as last year’s squad, they remain a formidable opponent, ranked third in the county standings and rankings. The Wildcats enter the contest with a 3-1-1 record, having tied top ranked Churchill in their most recent game action. Game time for Tuesday’s matinee is early, a 3:15 pm start at Rockville Ice Arena. The Lightning have gotten off to an incredibly disappointing start to the season, and will be looking to spring the upset.
Upper Montgomery will have very close to its full lineup for the game. It will be only the third time this season that the team will likely dress a full complement of forwards. Being able to run three full lines should allow the student athletes sufficient rest to compete hard over the entire game. The third periods have been Upper Montgomery’s downfall with the team having a minus twelve goal differential in the final period over the first six games of the season.
Three troubling trends have developed over the first portion of the season. One, a lack of goal scoring. This seems to have been rectified in two of the past three games, a 9-7 loss to Sherwood and a 7-5 loss to Mount St. Joseph. The second issue is the poor finishes mentioned above. Not having a full roster has placed a burden on the student athletes present at each game and they have run out of steam deep into the games. The third issue and the most glaring has been the defensive breakdowns. This may be a result of the top skaters having to play excessive minutes each game as the team has played with a short bench throughout the season. It may be playing without top defender Andrew Botti for the entire season. It may be that the defensive skaters have just not been good enough. It is no secret that the top teams in the county prevent goals. A look at the standings this season as well as last season show a dramatic difference in all teams’ records when giving up three or fewer goals in a game.
Upper Montgomery’s success will be defined by how well the offensive leaders of the team perform. Nathan Cassel leads the team with 6GP, 4G, 6A. He is coming off of a three point effort versus Mount St. Joseph, including converting on a penalty shot goal. Chris Hassett’s production has led the Lightning program for the past two seasons, and he is once again contributing. He is second on the team in scoring with 5GP, 3G, 4A. Ryan Jacobson has scored three goals in four games, bouncing back and forth between centering the second line and playing defense. Philip Shkeda is heating up having scored in three straight games. The difficulty for the Lightning has been getting the offense going especially against the top teams in the conference, scoring twice against Whitman, once against the DC Stars, and twice against BCC. Depth scoring from the second and third lines has been missing with many of the team’s forwards either underproducing or having all of their scoring centralized in the Sherwood game. Consistent depth scoring would dramatically advance the Lightning’s chances over the second half of the season.
Defensively, and in goal, the team must be significantly better. Yes, the team has had to patch together the defensive pairings while working through the injury to Botti, but the defensive blunders have been plentiful and massive. Most of the miscues have led directly to key opposition goals against. The forwards need to do a better job on the backcheck and with breakouts, controlling the game with puck possession and management. The defense must be more physical and not allow the opposing forwards down low beneath them and the goal.
Walter Johnson’s offensive output has been evenly distributed, led by its external travel team student athletes. 18U AAA forward Brendan Klotz who plays on the same external travel team as the Lightning’s Hunter Cameron has 5GP, 4G, 5A. Henry Horwell who plays on the same external travel team as the Lightning’s Henry Honacki has 5GP, 4G, 2A. Adam Pyott who plays 18U AA has five goals in five games. The Walter Johnson defense has also gotten in on the scoring led by Patrick Murphy who plays on the same 18U AA team as Brandon and Landon Bernard with 4GP, 3G, 1A, and Liam Mannle 16U AA who has 5GP, 3G, 1A. Ruslan Titov has 5GP, 1G, 3A and senior team leader 18U AA Jonathan Corwin has two goals in four games.
In net for Upper Montgomery is expected to be Landon Bernard. Bernard has had stretches of nice play this season sprinkled in with goals that he wishes he had back. Knowing so many of the Wildcat student athletes, he will be motivated to play well and stonewall Walter Johnson. Bernard will be backed up by 9th grade netminder Ilan Shterenberg. Shterenberg has played very well for the junior varsity this season having won all four starts and having posted two shutouts to begin his high school career. His season statistics are a .940 save percentage and a 1.03 goals against average. In limited action last week against Mount St. Joseph he stopped 16 of 18 shots on goal. If the game gets out of hand, anticipate Shterenberg will see additional game action as the coaching staff gets him experience at the varsity level as preparation for next season. In net for Walter Johnson is expected to be Isaac Russ. Russ has played in the majority of the games for the Wildcats this season and has posted respectable statistics, a 3.11 goals against average and an .860 save percentage.
Upper Montgomery is in desperate need of playing well and getting a much needed first win of the season on Tuesday. A win over Walter Johnson would be the first in program history and a terrific way to jump start the season. Up next after Walter Johnson and the Thanksgiving break is top ranked Churchill before the schedule lightens up over the second half of the league season.
#UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!