The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity capped an undefeated regular season (9-0-1 record) with a 4-3 victory over the Blair Blazers on Thursday evening. The Lightning set a junior varsity program record with their ninth win of the season and the 2023 – 2024 squad will also have the program’s best winning percentage when the upcoming Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoff tournament concludes. The ten game points streak is another program record. The win over Blair on Thursday evening clinched the number two seed in the county playoff tournament, with only the tie against Churchill a few weeks back preventing the Lightning from winning the Montgomery Hockey Conference regular season championship.
The game itself was a microcosm of the season. Defend well enough, block lots and lots of shots, muck it up all over the ice, kill penalties, rely on 9th grade netminder Shterenberg to make timely saves, score just enough to prevail, and then spend the final minutes of the game in scramble mode defending all over the ice. If this sounds like a redundant encapsulation of the season, it is. But, the ugly hockey, puck support, playing for their teammates, and simply just finding a way to get it done led to this historic regular season. Come the playoffs, things change, and they change quickly, just like the opening to the Blair game.
On the second shift of the contest Upper Montgomery would jump to a quick lead. After a reset in the neutral zone, Lightning forward Jason Woodman shot the puck across the ice from the right wing boards to the left wing boards. Lightning defender Cole Howerton collected the puck between the red line and his own defensive blue line. Using his speed, he skated down the left wing side of the ice and into the offensive zone. He came deep through the left faceoff circle before cutting toward the net. With the puck slightly behind him, Howerton fired a wrist shot far side past Blazers goalie Lily Ben David’s glove. It was Howerton’s fifth goal of the season and came just 1:12 into the contest.
With four minutes left in the first period, Blair would tie the game. The Upper Montgomery defense got caught up ice and it led to a Blair counter rush down the left side of the ice. The offside defender closed on Blair center Mason Boucher. Shterenberg made a save on Boucher’s shot with his right leg pad. Both Boucher and the Lightning defender went past the rebound. Unfortunately for Upper Montgomery, the trailing forwards were still too far away on the backcheck to swat the puck from harm. Blazers forward Chloe Ciabotti shoveled the puck past Shterenberg before any of the Lightning could recover.
A minute after Ciabotti’s goal, Blair would go to what would be the game’s only powerplay when Lightning defender Patrick Sell was called for hooking. As the team has done all season long, the penalty kill thwarted the extra skater advantage. Both teams headed to intermission with the score tied at one. Blair fired twelve shots on goal while Upper Montgomery countered with seven.
The second period followed a similar pattern. The teams traded chances and both goalies kept the score even. Halfway through the second period, Sell charged up ice with the puck. He flipped the puck into the offensive zone down the left wing boards and followed in after his dump in. Blair’s defense got to the puck and attempted to clear their defensive zone to the far side. The clearing attempt hit Sell near the right goal post. The puck squirted to the front of the net where Ben David took things into her own hands. She attempted to fire the puck out of the zone herself. She did not get much on the clearing attempt and sent the puck directly up the slot to one of Upper Montgomery’s top offensive threats, TJ Gottesman. Gottesman had time to stop the puck and flick a wrist shot from the top of the circles into the wide open unguarded net.
Playing with the lead once again, Upper Montgomery seemed to relax a bit. Blair had several good scoring chances before Benjamin Giblin scored his second goal of the season on a wrap around play. Giblin collected the puck in the right corner. He trundled around the net from right to left. With the puck on his backhand he flung the puck toward the net from a bad angle. The puck went far side on Shterenberg and into the net to tie the score at two. Both teams were credited with ten shots on goal in the second period showing just how evenly the game had been through two periods of play.
Upper Montgomery began to play more aggressively in the third period and carried play. Early in the period Ben David made some nice saves with her leg pads to keep the score tied. Four minutes into the third period, the Lightning scored off yet another faceoff play. It is the sixth goal in recent games that has come directly off a faceoff win by senior co-captain Adam Levine. This time Levine shot the puck forward off the draw directly on net. The puck was in Ben David’s feet when Gottesman began poking and swatting at the puck. He connected and pushed the loose puck past Ben David into the net to give Upper Montgomery a 3-2 lead.
With two minutes and thirty seconds left in the game Gottesman would give the Lightning a little breathing room. Howerton advanced the puck up the right wing boards from his defensive zone. Gottesman coming over from the center of the ice took control of the puck skating into the offensive zone. When he reached the middle point of the right faceoff circle, he fired far side past Ben David’s blocker. With a two goal lead, all Upper Montgomery needed to do was play stellar defense, knock pucks clear of the defensive zone, dump pucks in deep behind the Blair net, and escape with their undefeated season. If it were only that simple.
Once Blair got the puck in deep into the Upper Montgomery zone, Ben David went to the bench for an extra skater. Blair controlled the shift with multiple shots fired toward Shterenberg. Many of the shots were blocked by Levine and fellow Lightning forward AJ Marks. A few shots went wide of the net and a couple of others rolled in on Shterenberg which he swatted into the corner. Eventually, Upper Montgomery cleared the zone and managed to get a face off at center ice. Back into the net went Ben David. The next shift was a carbon copy of the last shift. Ben David made it back to the bench, enter the extra skater. Plenty of Blair pressure and lots of Upper Montgomery scrambling around in the defensive zone. Eventually, Boucher emerged from the right corner boards with the puck. As he got to the right of Shterenberg, he made a nice cross crease pass to Blair’s leading scorer William Campbell. Campbell had the entire back side of the net wide open and fired the puck past a lunging Shterenberg. With fifty five seconds remaining in the third period, it was back to a one goal game.
Upper Montgomery played the final shift of the game much better. Levine won yet another faceoff at center ice allowing the Lightning to control the puck and get organized in the neutral zone. Although Upper Montgomery failed to get the puck in deep, the puck did get to the top of the circles in the Blair defensive zone. Fore checking pressure by the forwards prevented the Blazers from getting the puck into the Lightning defensive zone with possession. It took until there was only seventeen seconds remaining in the game before Ben David was able to get back to the bench for the extra skater. Blair did finally get the puck into the Upper Montgomery defensive zone along the right wing boards. The puck made it just past the blue line, but Upper Montgomery muscled up and shoved the puck back to neutral ice. One final clear in by the Blazers was retrieved and immediately cleared back out to center ice by the Lightning defense finishing off an outstanding, undefeated regular season.
Next up for the Lightning junior varsity is a quarterfinal game in the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoffs. The team’s opponent will be determined early next week after all of the opening round games have concluded.
Game Notes:
- TJ Gottesman has scored in the last five games he has played in.
- It was TJ Gottesman’s second career hat-trick.
- Adam Levine ran his consecutive games points streak to seven straight games.
- TJ Gottesman and Josh Nadler both have three game winning goals.
- Ilan Shterenberg tied the junior varsity program record for wins in a season with his eighth victory.
- Ilan Shterenberg finished the regular season with an 8-0-1 record, a 1.67 goals against average, and a .931 save percentage.
- Shots on goal for the game were even with each team firing 28 shots on goal.
- Upper Montgomery returns to game action on Friday evening, January 12th for their start to the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoff tournament. Game time for the quarterfinal round is late night, a 10:00 pm start. The Lightning’s opponent will be determined after the opening round action concludes early in the upcoming week.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—TJ Gottesman—Upper Montgomery Forward—3 Goals
Second Star—Danilo Azcarate—Blair Defense
Third Star—Cole Howerton—Upper Montgomery Defense—1 Goal, 1 Assist