Fresh off the emotional high of Monday’s unexpected tie against BCC, the Upper Montgomery Lightning were looking forward to Friday evening’s clash versus “the team” in Maryland high school hockey. The Churchill Bulldogs have won seven of the last eight state championships. The only year Churchill did not win the state championship was during COVID when too many of their student athletes came down with the virus just before the start of the state championship tournament. Tournament officials then ruled Churchill ineligible and they were prevented from defending their title.
The Lightning’s anticipation turned out to be for naught as half the team became ill with the non-COVID virus circulating throughout Montgomery County. Instead of a challenging game to see how close the program was to the top of the Montgomery Hockey Conference, Upper Montgomery faced Churchill with half a squad including two junior varsity defensive call ups.
With the depleted lineup, the game went as expected. A minute and a half into the contest, Churchill would jump to the lead. Expected all conference forward Zach Silver took a pass from Asher Wang in the Churchill defensive zone. He raced up ice and fired a wrist shot from the top of the circles past Lightning netminder Landon Bernard. On the next shift, Landon’s twin brother Brandon, who was making his season debut, was called for tripping. The Bulldogs easily broke down the Lightning’s overmatched penalty kill with Silver scoring his second goal within the first four minutes of action. Dalton Esko-Himmelfarb assisted on the goal.
Upper Montgomery went on the powerplay halfway through the period when Bulldogs forward Joshua Wong was called for boarding. Even with Upper Montgomery on the powerplay, it looked as if the Lightning were shorthanded. Churchill controlled play even while down a skater and Bulldogs goalie Avery Schiff had an easy relaxing time of it. With three minutes remaining in the period, Churchill’s other expected all conference standout, defender Samuel Strand took control of the puck in his defensive zone and individually rushed up ice. As he reached the top of the left circle, he unleashed a high wrist shot that beat Bernard glove side. The unassisted goal capped off a dominating period in which Churchill outshot Upper Montgomery fourteen to three.
The second period was more of the same. Two early Churchill goals opened up the score to 5-0. Brook Chapman scored off a feed from Strand. Strand scored again from Silver. Halfway through the second period Brandon Bernard was again in the box for tripping. Wang scored from Silver on the powerplay continuing the Lightning’s horrible penalty kill performance to begin the season. Up six at this point, Churchill’s coaches began to provide more ice time to the bottom half of their roster. Dalton Esko-Himmelfarb scored off a pass from his brother Kobe to increase the lead to 7-0.
Toward the end of the second period, the Upper Montgomery would be rewarded for continuing to compete. Lightning forward Hunter Cameron went in hard on the forecheck. He forced the Bulldogs to dump the puck to center ice. Off of a Churchill miss play of the puck, Cameron gained possession. While still in the neutral zone, he sent the puck up ice to Brandon Bernard approaching the offensive blue line. Bernard made a move to the center of the ice and fired a wrist shot on net from the top of the slot. His shot beat Schiff cleanly putting the Lightning on the board. Immediately after the goal, Upper Montgomery began to play with more intensity. Center Chris Hassett was called for roughing and the Lightning penalty kill responded by snuffing out the Bulldogs powerplay. Then, a flurry of Upper Montgomery shots made the final shot totals for the period respectable, Churchill with thirteen more shots on Landon Bernard, while Upper Montgomery managed ten on Schiff.
The start of the third period saw Upper Montgomery head to the powerplay as Dalton Esko-Himmelfarb was called for interference. Upper Montgomery converted to make the score 7-2. Cameron fired a shot toward the net which was blocked in front. Hassett found the puck, spun, and fired the puck far side high past Schiff for his first goal of the season. Strand would finish the scoring with two minutes left on an individual end to end rush to complete his hat trick.
While disappointing that the Lightning did not have their full complement of student athletes available for the game, the team is looking forward to the rest of the regular season and achieving success never before accomplished by the program. The team is looking to put forth the effort needed to go on a prolonged winning streak, beat Wootton for the first time ever, and advance in the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs for the first time ever.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery played without Andrew Gean, Adam Levine, Nathan Cassel, Josh Nadler, George Benedick, Andew Botti, and Ryan Jacobson.
- Churchill outshot Upper Montgomery 34-17 for the game. Upper Montgomery mustered only three shots on goal in the first period and four shots on goal during the third period.
- Upper Montgomery’s penalty kill which was so good last season at 87.9%, was again porous yield two more powerplay goals. In four games this year, the squad had already given up eight powerplay goals, one more than over the entire season last year.
- Upper Montgomery’s penalty kill is now seven for fifteen on the season, 46.7%.
- Brandon Bernard scored in his season debut.
- After a week off, Upper Montgomery looks to turnaround the season against last place Northwest. Game time is 8:45 pm on November 18th at Rockville Ice Arena. The game against the Jaguars will begin a stretch where Upper Montgomery should be able to put together a stretch of wins to climb out of the 0-3-1 start to the season.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Samuel Strand—Churchill Forward—3 Goals, 1 Assist
Second Star—Zack Silver—Churchill Forward—2 Goals, 2 Assists
Third Star—Hunter Cameron—Upper Montgomery Forward–-2 Assists