The Upper Montgomery Lightning open the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs hosting the Blair Blazers. The game will be a rematch of a late January game won by Upper Montgomery 5-0. Game time on Friday is 8:20 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. The Lightning finished the regular season strong with a 5-1-1 conclusion to the conference schedule and very close losses to both Oakdale (led 1-0 with under five minutes remaining) and to Bullis this past Monday (tied with 40 seconds remaining). Blair is the third lowest ranked team in the conference having only beaten the lowest ranked team (Churchill 2) three times and edging past Northwest/Quince Orchard (second lowest ranked team) playing without its starting goalie. Upper Montgomery needs to guard against playing down to Blair’s level and being overconfident. The Lightning will need to bring it and dominate right from the beginning of the game and not let off the gas.
In net for Upper Montgomery will be senior Landon Bernard. Bernard has played very well of late and was stellar in Monday’s game against Bullis making 41 saves. His goals against average has shrunk by two goals per game over the back half of the season. His save percentage over his past seven starts is a stalwart .906. His 24 save shutout over Blair on senior night will make for a nice memory years from now. Upper Montgomery will only go as far in the playoffs as Bernard’s play takes the team. The Blazers will play Lily Ben David in net. She has a 5.71 goals against average and a .729 save percentage. She plays behind a porous defense and does well just to provide her team a chance to win against the lower competition Blair has faced this season. In the recent game against Upper Montgomery, she stopped 17 of 22 shots on goal. Upper Montgomery will need to do a much better job generating offense this time around and getting shots on goal.
Upper Montgomery may be dangerous while shorthanded as Ben David has been beaten ten times while Blair has been on the powerplay. On the flip side, Blair has done a nice job on the penalty kill giving up just two powerplay goals on the season. This does not bode well for the Lightning who have a ghastly powerplay currently sitting at 1-44 on the season after finally cashing in versus Bullis on Monday. Anticipate major changes to the Upper Montgomery powerplay including personnel changes to try and spark the dormant Lightning powerplay. To say Upper Montgomery has been challenged all season long while on the powerplay is certainly an understatement.
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 last Friday’s game against Rockville, the top line scored all five goals. Against Bullis, the top line scored both goals. There was no secondary scoring. Hassett (15GP, 13G, 17A) and Cassell (14GP, 10G, 17A) 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. A very nice passing sequence between Shekda and Cassel led to the late game tying goal against Bullis with a minute and a half remaining in the game. Shkeda (16GP, 12G, 6A) 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 (13GP, 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 (16G, 5G, 3A), Bradley Cupples (12GP, 2G, 5A), Olivia Robbins (8GP, 2G, 2A), and Henry Honacki (16GP, 5G, 3A) have each played well in a few games where they have accumulated the majority of their points on the season.
The Blazers are led offensively by Jackson Martindill (9GP, 7G, 4A). Chen Chen-Ye is next with (9GP, 4G, 5A). Long-time agitator Ari Garnder leads the team in goals (8GP, 8G, 1A). The Blazers defense has chipped in offensively. Joseph Killebrew (11GP, 4G, 4A), Wyatt Bakalis (9GP, 2G, 2A), and Danilo Azcarate (10GP, 3G, 1A) have provided some complementary scoring. BUT, it is hard to judge these offensive figures as most of the games Blair has played is against very weak competition. Against stronger competition Blair has been involved in one sided games, with the Blazers getting destroyed and scoring two or fewer goals.
On defense the Lightning struggled out of the gate. 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 played much more responsibly. 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 Blazers. Ninth grader Miles Wendland will likely pair with Botti. Expect Cole Howerton to play as the game progresses. If the game tightens up, Olivia Robbins may join her brother on the back end. 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 17 assists in 61 combined games played.
It’s time to prove it. The playoffs are here. There is no tomorrow for the teams that lose in the opening round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. The Lightning have begun to show much more fight and desire as the season has progressed. The effort against Bullis was outstanding. Now, the team needs to back up that performance. Blair does not care about how well Upper Montgomery has been playing. The Blazers are going to look at the matchup as their state playoff game. Blair is going to try and stymie the Lightning, do to Upper Montgomery what Upper Montgomery has been doing to other teams. Blair has nothing to lose and will come to play. Upper Montgomery must dig deep and perform. Whatever it takes. There is no tomorrow, just move on and advance to the Montgomery Hockey Conference quarterfinals. Anyhow, Anyway!
#Advance, #Extend the Streak, #UML, #Our Time, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!