The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity completed a fabulous regular season finishing with a 9-0-1 record and earning the second seed in the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoffs. The club eagerly awaited the announcement of the tournament bracket and quickly learned that it drew the worst imaginable opponent possible in the quarterfinal round of the junior varsity playoffs. Friday night’s game played out exactly how the coaching staff expected.
BCC is really not a bottom junior varsity squad. Within the rules, teams with varsity and junior varsity eligible student athletes pick and choose how to manage the maximum and minimum games requirement. BCC places a couple of dual varsity and junior varsity eligible students in their junior varsity game day lineup each game during the regular season to help stabilize the action. All student athletes play in enough games to become junior varsity playoff eligible. Then, when the playoff arrive, all of the BCC dual rostered students compete, often playing on the same line. Thus, BCC’s junior varsity playoff roster is much better than their results during the regular season would indicate.
The first period was full of hard hits which began right from the opening faceoff. The referees did not have control of the game right from the outset, and it would show later as the game continued. BCC forward Brady Page through a few nice big hits. While shots on goal in the period were fairly even, five for Upper Montgomery and four for BCC, the territorial play was constantly in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. This was true even when Upper Montgomery was playing with an extra skater while on both of their first period powerplays. BCC forward Ramin Jacobs was called for tripping just over three minutes into the contest and BCC defender Benjamin Lyons was called for roughing halfway through the period. Upper Montgomery barely had possession of the puck in the offensive zone on either powerplay.
With just under five minutes remaining in the opening period, BCC jumped out to a one to zero lead. From deep in the BCC defensive zone to the left of his net, BCC defender Nathaniel Shullman sent a backhand pass up the left wing boards to BCC forward Kiran Maltby. Maltby skated the puck down the left side and into the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. He curled up in the left faceoff circle and looked back toward the left point. With the point empty, he fired a cross ice pass through the crease. The puck went directly to Page standing a few feet outside the right goal post. Page shot quickly after stopping the pass beating a sliding Lightning netminder Ilan Shterenberg low to the stick side.
At the beginning of the second period, Lightning defender Cole Howerton was called for roughing. The stellar Upper Montgomery penalty kill prevented BCC from increasing their lead. When Lightning defender Miles Wendland was called for roughing halfway through the second period, the Lightning penalty kill again came through stymieing the Barons once again. With five and a half minutes left in the second period, the game resembled so many of Upper Montgomery’s regular season games, low scoring with the Lightning defending all over the ice, unblemished penalty killing, and Shterenberg making saves to keep the team in the game. Then, disaster struck. BCC cleared the puck to just outside the Upper Montgomery defensive blue line. The puck was misplayed by a Lightning defender leading to a breakaway opportunity for BCC forward Henry Swann. Swann chose to shoot a forehand shot from the crease that beat Shterenberg five hole to open up a two goal lead for the Barons.
Trailing by two goals, Upper Montgomery got out of their structure and style of play trying to force offense. BCC netminder Tycho Narrod-Malcolm had a super easy game through two periods of play with five innocent shots on goal during the first period while making just three saves in the second period. Shterenberg on the other hand was incredibly busy making highlight reel saves in the second period as BCC fired seventeen shots at him.
The play that put the game out of reach occurred near the end of the second period when BCC scored what seemed to be an insurmountable third goal. BCC advanced the puck from their defensive zone in the right corner up the right wing. Inside the Upper Montgomery defensive zone, the puck was played toward the net from the right wing boards. The puck was cut off by Howerton who cleared the puck out of the slot back over to the right wing boards. Lukas Hartnett-Mueller then sent a cross ice pass to Nicholas Mencher standing alone just outside the left post. Unguarded, Mencher sent a one-time shot past Shterenberg stick side.
The Lightning were granted a late second period powerplay when Lyons was called for slashing. Upper Montgomery was not able to generate any offensive chances. After two periods of play BCC led three to zero and the Lightning’s cinderella season was slipping away. The Lightning, who were playing without three regular skaters, were tiring. Offensively, they could generate very few chances and only fifteen minutes remained in the season.
Early in the third period, Upper Montgomery began to pressure Narrod-Malcolm more than over the previous thirty minutes of play. With just under twelve minutes left in the game, Upper Montgomery would break through. Howerton picked up the puck in his defensive one and skated diagonally up ice from the right side of the ice down the left wing. Entering the offensive zone, he carried the puck to the left circle where he unleashed a wrist shot on goal. The rebound shot out to the opposite side of the ice and to Lightning forward Sean Levine. From in front, Levine was able to bunt push the puck with his forehand into the open portion of the net past Narrod-Malcolm’s glove.
At three to one the chance of a comeback was still alive. Then, with nine and a half minutes left, the comeback became much more difficult. Lightning defender Patrick Sell was called for a major penalty for checking from behind as he leveled BCC defender Jeronimo Castano-Tellez into the side boards. The five minute major penalty sidetracked the comeback effort as the Lightning would have to kill off the five minute penalty. Causing even more harm was that a second position skater was going to have to serve the penalty. So, starting the game with nine skaters, and then dropping down to eight with Sell’s ejection for the major penalty, and then having another skater serve the penalty left the Lightning with seven skaters to kill the five minute shorthanded situation.
Led by Adam Levine, Josh Nadler, Aiden Zheng, and AJ Marks up front and by Howerton and Wendland in back, the Lightning excelled. While shorthanded, Sean Levine was assessed an elbowing penalty putting the Lightning in an even more precarious position. BCC had a five on three skater advantage for one minute and eighteen seconds and Upper Montgomery had only six skaters to utilize to kill the BCC powerplays. It was an unbelievable display of effort and desire by the remaining Lightning skaters to fight through the BCC powerplay. Upper Montgomery first neutralized the remainder of the five on three advantage and then the rest of Sean Levine’s minor penalty. Having to utilize so much energy on the defensive side and having multiple skaters play extended long shifts with several of the skaters also having to double shift due to the lack of skaters negated any real opportunity for a comeback. Upper Montgomery was not able to generate an offensive thrust over the final four minutes of the game once Sean Levine returned to the ice and then when Jason Woodman who was serving Sell’s five minute major rejoined game action.
BCC would seal the game with an empty net goal with 45 seconds remaining. Mencher finished off a nice passing sequence off of another cross ice pass from Hartnett-Mueller. Shullman who had started the play up ice and fired wide of the net was credited with the secondary assist. Shortly thereafter, the buzzer sounded on Upper Montgomery’s magical season. With many of the student athletes eligible to return again next season, new rising incoming ninth graders, and an expected influx of several student athletes from other high schools, the bar set by the 2023 – 2024 Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity will be very difficult to replicate. Senior Adam Levine, junior Josh Nadler, junior Cole Howerton, junior Patrick Sell, and junior TJ Gottesman have the distinction of being on the 2021 – 2022 Upper Montgomery Lightning squad that won the Montgomery Hockey Conference Junior Varsity Championship and also being on the 2023 – 2024 squad that went undefeated during the regular season.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery junior Josh Nadler fell one goal short of tying the junior varsity program record for goals in a season.
- Upper Montgomery senior Adam Levine fell one assist short of tying the junior varsity program record for assists in a season.
- Shots on goal for the game were lopsided in favor of BCC with 27 and Upper Montgomery with only 14.
- Upper Montgomery ninth grade goalie Ilan Shterenberg suffered his first career junior varsity loss.
- Upper Montgomery’s penalty finished the regular season perfect with a true goalie in net killing off four more penalties in the game. The Lightning killed off a five minute major to Patrick Sell and a 5-3 disadvantage to close the regular season 27-27 on the penalty kill with a goalie in net.
- Senior Sean Levine scored in his final high school hockey game.
- The Upper Montgomery junior varsity concluded the season with a 9-1-1 overall record. The nine wins in a season are a program record. The .863 winning percentage is also a program record.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Lucas Mueller—BCC Forward—2 Assists
Second Star—Ilan Shterenberg—Upper Montgomery Goalie—24 Saves, .899 Save Percentage
Third Star—Brady Page—BCC Forward—1 Goal