The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity is back in action on Friday afternoon November 11th squaring off against the Wootton Patriots. Game time is 4:00 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. The game is a rematch of last year’s game between the two programs where Upper Montgomery vastly outplayed Wootton but lost 1-0 as Wootton was inexplicitly granted permission to play a goalie that would have normally been ineligible for junior varsity level competition.
Coming off this week’s dominating victory over the Glenelg Gladiators, the junior varsity has won eight straight games dating back to last season. The team has thrived because of the depth of the roster and each game it seems as if a different student athlete steps forward to provide a major play in a critical moment.
Landon Bernard might be in net for the Lightning. This is an unexpected development as his external travel team was scheduled to be out-of-town this weekend. The Lightning have been working in position skater, center Chris Hassett in net just in case Bernard was unavailable. Bernard has been outstanding at the junior varsity level this season (2-0 record, 0.83 gaa, .958 save percentage, and one shutout). He is currently riding an eight game winning streak dating back to last season where he earned post-season honors (MSHL high 8 wins, 2.69 gaa, and an .880 save percentage). He began this season with a 15 save shutout victory in the Lightning’s season opening 2-0 victory over the DC Stars and he gave up one goal in the victory over Glenelg. If Bernard plays well, Upper Montgomery will have a superior advantage in goal. Wootton is expected to play a position skater in goal as the Patriots do not have a regular goalie with junior varsity eligibility.
On defense the Lightning will have close to a full complement of skaters. Although there will be a rotation and Stephen Shkeda may see some shifts playing defense late in a close game, expect the defensive pairings to be Cole Howerton with Patrick Sell and Jake Roth with Sean Levine. Behr Schickler will likely play with each of the other defenders. Each pairing will have one offensive minded defender paired with a more traditional stay at home defender. The forwards will need to backcheck hard to help the defense as Wootton is by far the best team the Lightning will have played this season. Wootton is led in points and goals by forwards Justin Heller (2 GP, 6G, 3A) and Owen Goozh (2GP, 4G, 1A). It is tough to gauge the Patriots roster as many of their points were accumulated in their season opening win against Churchill and Churchill has the worst junior varsity team in the county.
The Lightning’s offense has been spread around. TJ Gottesman leads the team in points with four after his three point effort against the Gladiators, Henry Honacki leads the team in goals with two, but has had half a dozen grade A scoring chances in each game and should have many more. Adam Levine, AJ Marks, and Patrick Sell have also chipped in with tallies. With Josh Nadler returning to play in the Glenelg game, he should be more comfortable in his second game of the season. Stephen Shkeda will be the most experienced and versatile student athlete on the ice. The Lightning should be close to full strength as the virus impacting Montgomery County, Maryland seems to be subsiding. The team has had multiple student athletes impacted over the past couple of weeks and that has certainly affected the roster composition for both the varsity and the junior varsity teams.
On Friday, Upper Montgomery will be out for revenge to erase the outcome of last season’s unfair loss. If the team continues to play together, plays hard, gets in on the forecheck, and executes, the Upper Montgomery junior varsity has a good chance to extend their winning streak and bring home another W.