The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity ran its record to an undefeated 5-0 on the season with a 4-2 non-conference victory over the Urbana Hawks Monday afternoon at Skate Frederick. Both Upper Montgomery and Urbana played with short benches due to injuries and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. But, Upper Montgomery used excellent goaltending from Ilan Shterenberg, dominance in the faceoff circle led by Adam Levine, and complementary team play to defeat an Urbana squad that had some talented skaters, but did not play as a team. The Lightning responded to their poor effort against Rockville in their last game and played with much more effort and determination against Urbana. Upper Montgomery now has five junior varsity victories this season, one more than the team’s total of four victories all of last season.
The start of the game was choppy with lots of whistles and stoppages of play. There was an extended delay as the referees handed out ten misconduct penalties to the Hawks Dimitri Kolmakov and Nico Brown for failure to wear mouthguards. The Lightning’s own Shterenberg was also caught without a mouthguard towards the end of the first period forcing Aiden Zheng to serve ten minutes in the penalty box and miss game action as a result. With only eight skaters, losing Kolmakov and Brown significantly impacted the Hawks not only in the first period but as the game wore on as most of their skaters were gassed having to play almost the entire first period.
Upper Montgomery would open the scoring on a nice shot by Cole Howerton. Howerton, typically a defender, played the first half of the game at forward. Lightning defender Avery Evans broke up an oncoming Urbana rush just inside the Upper Montgomery defensive blue line. She passed the puck up ice into space. Howerton rushed up to the puck collecting it at the offensive blue line near the left wing boards. He skated into the offensive zone to the top of the left faceoff circle before letting loose with a sizzling wrist shot that went far side high above the glove hand of Hawks goaltender Chloe Hanson. For Evans, the assist was her first career high school point. For Howerton, it was his fourth goal in five games this season.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, they held the lead for only nine seconds. After a tie up at center ice off the faceoff, Urbana defender Nathan Gu found the loose puck in several skaters’ feet. He skated up ice along the right wing. As he entered the Lightning defensive zone, Gu cut diagonally through the top of the right faceoff circle into the slot. His speed allowed him to beat the Upper Montgomery defense to create a high danger shot. His wrist shot went five hole, between Shterenberg’s legs to even the score at one.
On the first shift of the second period, the Hawks would briefly take the lead. After a routine save by Shterenberg, a scramble ensued in the slot. The puck was pushed into the right corner by the Lightning defense. Kolmakov got to the puck first. He sent a quick backhand pass back towards the top of the inside of the right faceoff circle. The pass went straight to Hawks forward and leading scorer Patrick Terrebonne. Terrebonne’s shot through a screen went low stick side past Shterenberg to put Urbana up two to one.
Similar to the first period, on the next shift Upper Montgomery would immediately answer. After an Urbana icing, the faceoff came back into the Hawks defensive zone. The draw was in the right faceoff circle. Levine won the draw cleanly and directly left to Upper Montgomery’s leading scorer Josh Nadler positioned in the slot. In one motion, Nadler slapped the oncoming puck far side past Hanson’s right leg pad to even the score at two.
Halfway through the second period the Lightning got themselves into trouble with penalties. First, TJ Gottesman was called for roughing. While shorthanded, the Lightning controlled the puck aided by faceoff win after faceoff win by Levine. Urbana did not control the puck in the defensive zone as the Lightning were able to ice the puck after each faceoff win and prevent zone entries thereafter. While killing off Gottesman’s penalty, Nadler was also called for roughing. His penalty put the Lightning down two skaters for 38 seconds. Levine continued to win each faceoff aided by Jake Roth’s and Howerton’s sure handed clears icing the puck deep into the Hawks zone. Showing his displeasure with the penalty called against him, Nadler was given a ten minute misconduct penalty. The Lightning’s leading scorer would be off the ice for twelve minutes in a tied game where the Lightning only had five forwards available.
With eight seconds left in the second period, the Hawks Nico Brown was called for a questionable slashing penalty. Upper Montgomery would begin the third period on the powerplay with a chance to re-take the lead. Although Urbana outshot the Lightning by a wide fifteen to five margin in the second period, after Terrebonne’s goal Upper Montgomery did a good job controlling the majority of the period and limiting the Hawks shots to non-threatening chances from distance.
Starting the third period on the powerplay, Upper Montgomery would quickly capitalize. Levine again won a faceoff in the right faceoff circle. He went 20 and 4 on faceoffs for the game. The clean faceoff win went to Howerton at the right point. Howerton’s shot was blocked in the slot and fell directly to Gottesman. Gottesman shot wide near side with the puck caroming around all the way to Evans at the left point. Evans’ sweeping shot was also blocked in front. The puck landed next to Levine who quickly fired from the bottom of the left circle. Hanson made an excellent pad save on the shot but could not control the rebound. The puck shot straight into the slot to Gottesman who easily swept the puck into the wide open portion of the net past Hanson’s left leg pad. The Lightning now had the lead three to two.
With nine minutes remaining in the game Upper Montgomery’s fourth goal provided some breathing room. Levine won the draw in the defensive zone. Aiden Zheng skated the puck down the ice into the offensive zone and into the right faceoff circle where he pulled up and fired a wrist shot wide of the net short side. The puck was controlled by the Hawks defense behind the net when Upper Montgomery forward Sean Levine crashed in on the forecheck. Levine stole the puck and circled the puck around the boards to Lightning defender Miles Wendland at the left point. Wendland’s wrist shot from just at the blue line of the left point went past Adam Levine in the slot screening Hanson and changed directions. Hanson never saw the puck as she did not move until the puck skittered past her far side beneath her glove. For Wendland, it was his first career high school goal.
Over the next five minutes of action Upper Montgomery defended and chipped pucks out of the zone, knocked pucks away from the Hawks, packed a defensive shell around Shterenberg, and when they could, exited the zone to the red line and dumped the puck in deep into the Urbana zone. This strategy forced the Hawks to expend a lot of energy to go the length of the ice while they were tired to generate offensive chances. It looked like Urbana was in slow motion skating up ice.
The game plan changed when another horrible officiating call put the Lightning on the penalty kill with 3:22 left in the game. Lightning defender Patrick Sell was called for high sticking when he pushed over a Hawks forward. His stick never was raised above his waist. Urbana pulled Hanson to add an additional skater making the powerplay a six on four skater advantage. The Upper Montgomery coaching staff kept Levine and Nadler on the ice for the entire penalty kill and until the next whistle. It was a two minute and twenty second shift in which Levine won all three defensive zone faceoffs and the Lightning kept the Hawks to the perimeter, blocked shots, forced shots wide of the net, and were able to clear the defensive zone to center ice on three separate occasions. It never felt as if Urbana was on the verge of cutting into the deficit. Another minute of action where Upper Montgomery defended and Shtereberg made a few saves allowing the Lightning to hold on for victory number five.
Up next for the Lightning junior varsity is a show me game against the top junior varsity team in the Motgomery Hockey Conference, the Richard Montgomery Rockets. It will be a battle of two undefeated teams. The Rockets are 4-0 on the season and have given up only four goals while scoring an eye popping 25 goals. Upper Montgomery will need to play superior team defense just to hang around and make it a close game to remain undefeated. Richard Montgomery will be the best team the Lightning junior varsity will play during the regular season. Many of the Rockets junior varsity student athletes receive regular playing time on Richard Montgomery’s varsity team. Shterenberg will need to make some huge saves, and the Lightning will have to commit to stopping the Rockets with all five skaters playing incredible team defense in order to win and vault to the top of the conference standings.
Game Notes:
- The victory over the Hawks was the junior varsity’s fifth consecutive victory to start the season.
- Shots on goal for the game were lopsided in favor of Urbana, 32-18.
- Josh Nadler scored for the fifth consecutive game. He has scored in each game this season and leads the Lightning junior varsity with six goals.
- Upper Montgomery went 3-3 on the penalty kill and remains a perfect 16-16 on the season.
- Upper Montgomery scored a powerplay goal for the third consecutive game (on their only opportunity) and is now 3-14 on the season, 21.4%.
- The Upper Montgomery junior varsity returns to game action on Friday night, December 1st against the top junior varsity program in the Montgomery Hockey Conference. Game time is late night, a 10:00 pm start against the Richard Montgomery Rockets at Cabin John Ice Rink.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Ilan Shterenberg—Upper Montgomery Goalie—Win, 2 GAA, 30 Saves, .938 Save %
Second Star—Adam Levine—Upper Montgomery Center—2 Assists, 4 Blocked Shots, 20-4 on Faceoffs
Third Star—Nathan Gu—Urbana Defense—1 Goal