The Upper Montgomery Lightning defeated BCC 4-3 on Friday night securing their first ever victory over the Barons. In the prior sixteen seasons that the Upper Montgomery program has existed, the Lightning had only earned a tie against BCC two seasons ago on Halloween. All of the other contests between the two programs had gone in favor of BCC. Now, it is just the Churchill Bulldogs that the Lightning have never beaten, coincidently also earning a tie two seasons ago. This year’s season opener was an extremely exciting game for the Lightning to have made history with the graduation of nine seniors and with two top juniors departing the program this season. The young mighty Lightning were the team to get the first ever win over the Barons.
In nearly every game this season Upper Montgomery is likely to dress a lineup that is short on varsity experience. In the season opener, the Lightning dressed the following student athletes who had never before skated for the Upper Montgomery varsity team; junior varsity all-time leading scorer, senior TJ Gottesman, ninth grade forward Siddy Bhasin, ninth grade defender Luke Hudson who wound up playing forward against the Barons, sophomore defender Avery Evans, and ninth grade defenders Lillian Robbins and Matt Rivera. Each new student held their own when called upon allowing the entire team to receive adequate rest throughout the contest.
BCC controlled the majority of play during the opening period although most of their shots on goal were from the exterior or from long range. Halfway through the period, Lightning senior forward Nathan Cassel was called for a two minute minor penalty for interference. With a bit of scrambling and some Barons shots fired wide of the net from in close, Upper Montgomery survived the extra skater advantage keeping the game tied. Five minutes later, the Lightning’s most experienced defender, junior Brady Berkhammer was headed to the penalty box for a slashing penalty. It was during this second powerplay of the period, that BCC converted to take an early 1-0 lead.
Upper Montgomery cleared the puck down ice. It was stopped by BCC netminder Vivienne Boyle at the left side of her net. She left the puck for the Baron’s most talented skater, defender Grady Jiggens, to carry the puck up the left wing boards. As he approached the defensive blue line, Jiggens sent a cross ice, diagonal pass to the right wing of the ice at the Upper Montgomery defensive blue line. His pass was right on the money for BCC forward Evan Williams. Williams skated into the offensive zone and he fired a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. Upper Montgomery’s sophomore goalie, Ilan Shterenberg made the save on Williams’ initial shot. Williams kept skating toward the net and he outhustled the Lightning defense to the puck just outside the crease near the right post. The puck had bounced over some sticks and clanked off of a skate, but Williams stayed with the play and he shot the rebound past Shterenberg’s left leg pad into the back of the net for the powerplay goal.
Rather than sulk in having fallen behind, Upper Montgomery answered back quickly, on the very next shift. Berkhammer had the puck at his own blue line along the right wing boards. He sent an outlet pass to sophomore forward Aiden Zheng. Zheng received the pass on the left side of the ice at the center red line of the neutral zone. Zheng entered the offensive zone down the left side of the ice shielding the puck from the BCC defense with his body position. He pulled up at the top of the left faceoff circle and found junior center Owen Robbins coming into the offensive zone down the middle of the high slot. Robbins collected Zheng’s pass and riffled a rocket of a wrist shot to the left side of the net that went high past Boyle’s blocker and screaming into the net. The first period ended knotted at one with BCC having the advantage in shots on goal with thirteen while Upper Montgomery countered with seven.
Upper Montgomery looked much more comfortable in the second period as the team got into the flow of the game and relaxed. Realizing that they could compete with BCC contributed to the Lightning becoming more confident and offensive minded as the game progressed. Ten seconds into the middle period, Lightning senior center, Henry Honacki crashed into a BCC defender with his back turned. Honacki was called for a minor penalty for roughing. He was lucky that he was not called for a check from behind as that would have brought an additional ten minute misconduct penalty. Upper Montgomery’s penalty killers stood tall and neutralized the Barons’ powerplay as the Barons continually fired wide of net with open looks.
Four minutes into the second period, Upper Montgomery went to their first powerplay of the game when BCC forward Brady Page was called for elbowing. With forty seconds left on Page’s penalty, one of BCC’s top defenders, Benjamin Lyons was called for hooking as Upper Montgomery had possession of the puck in the slot setting up for a prime scoring chance. The two penalties gave Upper Montgomery a 5-3 powerplay and a great opportunity to take the lead. From a faceoff in the left faceoff circle in the BCC defensive zone, Robbins won the draw with his feet to the side boards. With body position, he shielded BCC’s center which allowed Zheng to come over to assist and win the puck along the left wing boards. Zheng sent the puck back to the left point to Lightning senior defender Cole Howerton. Howerton turned to his right and sent the puck across the blue line to his defensive partner, sophomore Miles Wendland. Wendland stepped in from the right point and sent a rising wrist shot toward the net from the right faceoff circle. With Bhasin standing in front setting a screen, the unseen puck thudded into Boyle’s shoulder and she was late to corral the biscuit. The puck fell behind her and Robbins was there to slam home the rebound from a foot outside the goal line. For the Lightning it was a welcome outcome to score early on the powerplay especially since the team did not score on the powerplay last year until the final regular season game of the season.
Scoring as quickly as they did, Upper Montgomery remained on the extra skater advantage for another one minute and forty five seconds. A minute later BCC was able to clear their defensive zone. Wendland hustled back and outskated an onrushing BCC forward in the left corner of the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. He quickly advanced the puck along the left wing boards to Zheng inside the Lightning defensive zone. Zheng advanced the puck further up the ice finding Robbins at the red line in center ice. Robbins skated into the Barons defensive zone and cut to the middle of the ice. From up top of the offensive zone near the blue line, surrounded by four BCC skaters, he lined up and fired a shot low along the ice that beat Boyle stick side. Upper Montgomery was ahead by two goals at 3-1 halfway through the game.
On the next shift two very poor clearing attempts by high level experienced students led to the Lightning being hemmed in the defensive zone. Before the BCC offensive sequence was finished, Berkhammer had taken his second slashing minor penalty of the game. On the ensuring powerplay, BCC would score with one second remaining before Berkhammer was set to return to the ice. Off of a rewind in the BCC defensive zone, Jiggens had control of the puck along the right wing boards. He sent a cross ice pass to his defensive partner Jeronimo Castano-Tellez on the left wing at the BCC defensive blue line. Castano-Tellez skated the puck out of the defensive zone, through the neutral zone, and toward the offensive blue line where he dumped the puck around the boards and behind the net. Along the right wing boards BCC forward Leo Alley-Strocher controlled the puck and skated into the right wing corner. He then sent a pass to the crease that came all the way through sticks and legs of BCC forwards and Upper Montgomery defenders.
BCC forward Ramin Jacobs settled down the puck along the left wing boards and dropped the puck deep into the left corner to Alley-Strocher. Alley-Strocher took the puck behind the net from left to right. From the right corner he sent a backhand pass to BCC forward Julia Reitz along the right wing boards. She sent a return pass down to Alley-Strocher in the right corner. Alley-Strocher’s next pass to the mid point looking for Castano-Tellez was deflected by Reitz’s stick which slowed the puck down for Castano-Tellez to step into a one time slap shot. His shot hit traffic in front of the net where the puck bounced off sticks and bodies over to Jacobs. Jacobs sent an unselfish pass across the crease to a wide open Alley-Strocher all alone at the back right goal post. Alley-Strocher had no problem easily tucking the puck home as he was behind Shterenberg.
With four and a half minutes remaining in the second period the Lightning were called for a phantom too many skaters on the ice penalty. Its hard to have a too many skaters on the ice when there are only the five permitted skaters. The referees completely blew the call. Maybe because the team was mad, the penalty killers bared down and used a determined effort to kill off the BCC extra skater advantage. It was Upper Montgomery’s best penalty killing effort of the evening.
Forty five seconds into the penalty kill, Upper Montgomery turned on the offense. A BCC forward lost control of the puck in the slot area. Upper Montgomery’s coaches had Robbins playing back on defense during the penalty kill and he cleared the puck out of the slot to the left wing boards just outside the defensive blue line. Cassel sped after the puck and he outraced the BCC defender who was also chasing after the puck. Cassel gained control of the puck and he skated up ice down the left wing. At the left faceoff circle he curled around and sent a forehand pass from the left side of the ice to the right goal post where Philip Shkeda had followed the play into the offensive zone. Shkeda was alone in front. He possessed the puck and fired from right in front of Boyle. His shot banked off of her left leg pad and went up over her pads and into the net for the shorthanded goal.
Just after Shkeda’s goal, Alley-Strocher was called for a tripping minor to eliminate the rest of the BCC powerplay. With its two goal lead restored late in the second period, Upper Montgomery played the four on four shift in a defensive posture similar to still being on the penalty kill. The Lightning did not want BCC to gain any momentum to take into the third period. Shots on goal in the second period were even with Upper Montgomery placing twelve shots on net including the three that got past Boyle. BCC fired eleven shots on Shterenberg.
Upper Montgomery played chip and chase hockey for the entirety of the third period. Shifts were kept short. Each Lightning student athlete was instructed simply to clear the puck over the defensive blue line to relieve pressure. If the Lightning had possession of the puck in the neutral zone, it was an automatic dump from the red line deep into the BCC defensive zone, making the Barons carry the puck up the full length of the ice going through all five Lightning skaters to create offensive chances. If by chance Upper Montgomery was pinned in their defensive zone, the students were told to ice the puck. In high school hockey, line changes are permitted after an icing call. So, icing the puck allows tired skaters to depart the ice and it settles down the game for a little while. Upper Montgomery played through a couple of chaotic moments in the opening five minutes of the third period and then went on the powerplay.
Back to back penalties called on BCC gave the Lightning a prime opportunity to widen the lead. First, Jiggens was called for tripping and then twenty seconds later Lyons was called for high sticking. BCC was down two skaters for a minute and forty seconds and both of their top defenders were in the penalty box. Unfortunately, Upper Montgomery was not able to finish off a couple of good scoring chances with the puck trickling just wide and then Boyle making a nice save on a shot from point blank range. The powerplay did allow for additional time to come off the clock leaving only the second half of the third period remaining when BCC was finally back at full strength.
The Lightning coaching staff began to shorten the bench to protect some of the younger students from being put in unfavorable matchups and situations on the ice. As time continued to wind down, the BCC pressure ramped up with all five skaters taking offensive chances in an attempt to try and climb back into the game. That pressure paid off with an Upper Montgomery icing with less than three minutes remaining in the game. BCC called timeout and pulled Boyle in favor of an extra skater.
When play resumed, the faceoff was in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone in the right faceoff circle. The draw was tied up in the faceoff dot. BCC’s Page poked the puck to the right corner. Williams shuffled the puck lower around the curve toward the back of the net to Alley-Strocher. Alley-Strocher fed the puck out front with his backhand. Coming down the slot from his left point position and wide open was Lyons. He fired a snap shot along the ice to the far side of the goal past Shterenberg’s right leg pad. The Upper Montgomery right wing was in the corner puck chasing and left the slot unguarded permitting Lyons to have a clear route to the slot. It took only eight seconds with the goalie pulled for BCC to close the score to 4-3.
The final two and a half minutes were intense. Lightning skaters gave maximum effort to shield Shterenberg and to preserve the one goal lead. A few long clearing attempts missed the empty net resulting in icing calls. The last icing coming with two seconds remaining in the game. A tie up on the final faceoff draw allowed Upper Montgomery to secure the historic victory. Along with the win came important standings points to open the season on a high note. It felt good for the program to finally break through and defeat an opponent that had owned the Lightning over the past decade and a half.
Game Notes:
- BCC outshot Upper Montgomery 34-27 for the game.
- Upper Montgomery dressed six students who had never before played in a high school varsity hockey game.
- Junior center Owen Robbins scored his first career multi-goal game and finished with his first career hat-trick. He added an assist for a career high four point game.
- Miles Wendland and Aiden Zheng each contributed two assists.
- Both teams were 2-5 on the powerplay. For Upper Montgomery the powerplay success was a welcome change from last season when the Lightning miss-fired on their first 46 extra skater advantages, not scoring on the powerplay until the final game of the regular season against Bullis.
- Upper Montgomery won it season opener for the first time in four seasons. Last year’s squad began the season 1-7. In 2022 – 2023, the Lightning started the year 1-4-1. With Northwest / Quince Orchard appearing on the schedule on Halloween evening, the worst that Upper Montgomery will begin the season this year is 2-1.
- Upper Montgomery returns to action next week in another late night affair when the Lightning hosts the Rockville / Magruder Rams. Game time is at 10:00 pm at Cabin John Ice Rink.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Owen Robbins—Upper Montgomery Center—3 Goals, 1 Assist
Second Star—Miles Wendland—Upper Montgomery Defense—2 Assists
Third Star—Ilan Shterenberg—Upper Montgomery Goalie–Win, 31 Saves, .912 Save Percentage