Upper Montgomery closed out the 2022 – 2023 regular season with a dud of a performance. The late 10:00 pm start time may have contributed especially with the game starting closer to 10:15 pm after the Lightning celebrated the careers of its five senior student athletes (team captain, defender George Benedick, defender Ethan Hockey, defender Andrew Gean, and forwards Stephen Shkeda and Lucas Eyman). The pre-game ceremony was by far the highlight of the evening for the Lightning’s supporters. On Halloween, Upper Montgomery shocked the conference by tying BCC. On Friday night, the Barons took out their revenge hammering the Lightning by a score of 8-2. With losses in two consecutive games to close out the regular season, the Lightning’s recent five game winning streak seems like a long time ago.
The first ten minutes of the game were fairly even in terms of shots on goal, but BCC controlled play and possession of the puck. The BCC shots on goal were far more challenging than the Upper Montgomery attempts. Upper Montgomery’s shots were from the outside, from bad angles, or zone entry dump ins that happened to go on net. Conversely, Lightning netminder Landon Bernard made some nice saves to keep Upper Montgomery even. The Lightning did not generate much offensive thrust with an early first period powerplay after BCC defender Benjamin Lyons was called for interference.
With just under six minutes remaining in the first period the BCC deluge of goals would commence. First, BCC center Sebastian Harrison took a pass from defender Henry Blumberg, skated through both the neutral zone and into the offensive zone before firing a wrist shot past Bernard. Two minutes later on a similar play, BCC star offensive forward Henry Caldicott scored on a wrist shot from the left circle after being sprung up ice on a pass from center Matthew Duffy. For Caldicott it would be the first of his five points on the night. For Duffy it was the first of his four assists in the game.
BCC would score early in the second period on a long range shot from the point. Duffy won the faceoff in the right faceoff circle in the offensive zone. The puck went to Caldicott along the right wing boards. Caldicott passed back to Lyons at the point. The big defender unleashed a low, hard slap shot that went along the ice and past a screened Bernard. Just under the eight minute mark of the second period Harrison scored on an end to end rush with several Lightning skaters attempting to play the puck rather than take the body. Harrison went in alone on Bernard and scored from the low slot area.
Upper Montgomery would have two additional powerplays at the end of the second period when Grady Jiggens was called for roughing. The second opportunity was when Collin Eccles was called for tripping. Upper Montgomery mounted some shots on net with the skater advantages but did not really threaten Barons’ goalie Graham McGrath White. After two periods of play, BCC had a 4-0 lead and was cruising to the season ending victory.
The Lightning were able to find a brief spark at the beginning of the third period. In his final regular season game, Benedick would score to cut the Barons lead to 4-1. Lightning forward Henry Honacki shot the puck from the right circle. McGrath White made an easy stick save with the puck shuffled off to the boards behind the net. The BCC defense cleared the puck around the boards where it was stopped by Lightning center Bradley Cupples along the left wing boards. Cupples sent the puck cross ice to Benedick back at the right point. Benedick skated in a few strides. He let loose with a long range wrist shot that beat McGrath White far side blocker with both Cupples and Lightning forward Josh Nadler screening in front of the net.
The comeback would be short lived. On his next shift Benedick would be called for interference for a high body check. Caldicott would score on a shot from the left circle after the Barons moved the puck around on the powerplay. Aleksander Talty sent the puck from the right wing boards to Graham Leblanc at the middle point. Leblanc sent the puck across to Caldicott who stopped, changed the angle of the shot, and ripped the puck past Bernard to restore the Barons four goal cushion.
Upper Montgomery would score a powerplay goal of its own with Marlowe Curalli in the box for roughing after an over aggressive play with seven minutes remaining in the game. Lightning leading scorer Chris Hassett moved the puck down the left wing boards behind the net. He curled around and went back toward the left faceoff circle. With the BCC defense paying attention to Hassett, linemate Nathan Cassel snuck into the slot area. Hassett’s backhand pass found Cassel in prime scoring position. Cassel’s snap shot went low stick side past McGrath White. The Lightning were back to within three goals at 5-2 with 6:45 remaining in the game.
That would be as close as the Lightning would get. After two consecutive shifts with their top offensive scorers on the ice and the three goal bulge remaining, Upper Montgomery began putting several of their seniors who do not typically receive a lot of ice time on the ice. BCC would receive goals from John Brunn (twice) and Eccles in garbage time to widen the margin of victory to 8-2. On many of the late goals Bernard was let down by the skaters in front of him.
The regular season is now complete. Upper Montgomery earned the seventh seed in the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoff tournament. Last season, Upper Montgomery earned the tenth seed in making the division one playoffs for the first time ever. The Lightning showed progress and improvement this season. The team is probably one more year away from everything falling into place for a deep playoff run. However, this year’s team has an outside chance to shock one of the top teams in the conference and make it to the state playoffs. The playoffs start next Friday night. The storm is brewing. The Lightning are coming. Watch out.
#Our Time, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!
Game Notes:
- Shots on goal for the game were fairly even, BCC with 35 and Upper Montgomery with 32.
- Upper Montgomery was 1-4 on the powerplay.
- The Lightning finished the regular season with a .500 record at 6-6-1. Five of the team’s six losses were to teams ranked in the top ten in the Maryland state public high school ice hockey rankings.
- Upper Montgomery will seek to claim its first ever Montgomery Hockey Conference division one playoff victory next Friday evening. The Lightning’s likely opponent is the St. Johns Cadets, although the opponent and schedule will be announced over the next 24-48 hours.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Henry Caldicott—BCC Forward—2 Goals, 3 Assists
Second Star—Sebastian Harrison—BCC Center—2 Goals
Third Star—Matthew Duffy—BCC Center–-4 Assists