The Upper Montgomery Lightning close out the regular season when they face off on Monday afternoon against the Bullis Bulldogs. Game time is 3:15 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. It will be an incredibly difficult task for the Lightning as the Bulldogs are 4-0-1 against public high school competition. Bullis is in the middle of the pack in the much more competitive Maryland private high school league. Bullis would be comparable to the very top teams in the Montgomery Hockey Conference. The coaching staff intentionally scheduled the Bulldogs as the final regular season game to prepare Upper Montgomery to be playoff ready at the end of the week when the Lightning host a first round playoff matchup. The opening round playoff opponent, location, and game time will be released later in the week. The Lightning have been playing much better of late. Upper Montgomery is 5-1-1 in its last seven conference games advancing up the conference standings. The Lightning’s lone conference loss since very early in November was against Churchill.
Upper Montgomery may use both of its goalies in the game. It has been a while since ninth grade netminder Ilan Shterenberg has seen game action. The coaching staff will want to make sure he is ready if needed during the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. Senior Landon Bernard has played very well of late and made four huge saves Friday evening in the thrilling overtime win over Rockville. He also recently shutout Blair. His goals against average for the season is shrinking and his save percentage is climbing. Upper Montgomery will only go as far in the upcoming conference playoffs as Bernard’s play takes the team. The Bulldogs are expected to play Jacob Lang in net. Against public high school competition he has a 2.00 goals against average, a .902 save percentage, and he recorded a shutout against BCC. In Private school play, Bullis has used Andrew Hookman-Vass as their primary goalie.
Upper Montgomery had hoped this season for balanced goal scoring throughout its lineup. Last season’s top line of Chris Hassett, Nathan Cassel, and Philip Shkeda has continued to produce again this season. Unfortunately, it has been a continual search for other student athletes to step up and match last year’s offensive production. In Friday’s game against Rockville, the top line scored all five goals. There was no secondary scoring. Hassett (14GP, 13G, 16A) and Cassell (13GP, 9G, 16A) have alternated the team lead in assists and points throughout the season. A beautiful give and go passing sequence between the two led to Cassel’s overtime winner on Friday night. Shkeda (15GP, 11G, 5A) had been tied for the team lead in goals until Friday. The season ending injury to Ryan Jacobson (6GP, 4G, 1A) drastically impacted the Lightning’s secondary offense. Hunter Cameron has chipped in nicely with (12GP, 5G, 4A). He has scored two goals in two different games, and Cameron scored the tying goal late in the third period against the DC Stars. Each of the team’s other forwards, Brandon Bernard (15G, 5G, 3A), Bradley Cupples (12GP, 2G, 5A), Olivia Robbins (7GP, 2G, 1A), and Henry Honacki (15GP, 5G, 3A) have each played well in a few games where they have accumulated the majority of their points on the season.
The Bulldogs are led offensively by star defender Davian Peretti (8GP, 7G). Next in line is another defender, Avery Brown with (6GP, 2G, 6A). Bullis’ top scoring forward is Matt Halle (11GP, 6G, 3A). Liam Grapes who transferred from Urbana to Bullis this offseason has tallied (11GP, 1G, 6A). The remainder of the Bulldogs have scored five or fewer points on the season.
On defense the Lightning have played better lately after struggling through the early portion of the season. With top defender Andrew Botti out for the first eight games of the season, Upper Montgomery had difficulty keeping teams out of the high danger areas. With Botti back, the team has given up far fewer goals. Senior co-captain Cameron has played several games on defense to help anchor and provide stability on the back end. Sophomores Brady Berkhammer and Owen Robbins will see substantial playing time against the Bulldogs. Ninth grade defender Miles Wendland and junior Cole Howerton will also see game action. Outside of Cameron’s production in October’s season opener against Whitman where he scored both Upper Montgomery goals, all other Upper Montgomery defensive skaters have contributed no goals and sixteen assists in 64 combined games played. Getting shots through from the points and contributions offensively from the defense will definitely help Upper Montgomery.
It should be a rewarding experience for the Lightning to play such a top level team just prior to the start of playoff action. Upper Montgomery should have fun with the game and play free with no stress. There are no expectations on the team other then to play hard and compete for the entire game. The primary objective is for the student athletes to get used to the speed of playing against tougher competition.
#Extend the Streak, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!