The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity begins play in the Montgomery Hockey Conference Division Two playoff tournament over the next two weeks. The squad had a terrific finish to the regular season. First, Nathan Cassel scored in overtime as the Lightning came back to defeat Rockville 5-4 in the last regular season conference game. The victory over the Rams provided Upper Montgomery with its highest ever final regular season ranking of sixth. Finishing sixth meant avoiding both Walter Johnson and Churchill in the upcoming playoffs. An incredibly close game against private school powerhouse Bullis ended with the Lightning on the wrong side of a 3-2 decision. Upper Montgomery scored with 1:27 left in the game to tie up the score, only to see the Bulldogs tally with 39 seconds remaining to escape with the victory.
In the opening round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference Division One playoffs, the Lightning dispatched the Blair Blazers by a score of 5-1. Blair played incredibly hard and well, but Upper Montgomery just had too much talent. Senior center and co-captain Chris Hassett had two goals and two assists in the game. Brady Berkhammer scored his first career high school goal and also added an assist. Cassel, playing alongside Hassett, had a goal and an assist as well. Bradley Cupples added two assists. Adam Levine had to step up and play regular minutes due to an illness to Philip Shkeda. He chipped in with two assists. Brandon Bernard tallied. Landon Bernard only gave up one goal. He lowered his miniscule playoff statistics to an eye popping .966 save percentage and a 0.98 goals against average over his three career playoff outings.
Unfortunately, the season crash landed the following week as the Lightning were routed by the Whitman Vikings. Upper Montgomery came out flat and was overrun by the Vikings. The game was never close with Whitman winning 6-1 and the Lightning getting outshot by a wide 50-14 margin. Landon Bernard played admirably making 44 saves in the game. The overall team defense was non-existent and Bernard was left out to dry by the Lightning skaters.
The team will have had a few weeks to try and overcome the disappointment of falling one game short of the Maryland Student Hockey League state playoffs for the second consecutive season. Upper Montgomery still has something to compete for, the Montgomery Hockey Conference Division Two tournament title. Unlike the program’s Division Two title at the conclusion of the 2018 – 2019 season, a Division Two championship now is more impressive than the previous championship which was only contested by the bottom teams in the league.
Upper Montgomery opens the Division Two tournament as the number one seed. A quarterfinal round matchup against Northwest/Quince Orchard awaits on the final Monday of February. Often, the Division Two tournament is won by the team that is able to mentally rise up and overcome the disappointment of missing out on the state playoff tournament. With seven seniors still competing, going out with a championship would cap a four year run that has taken the Lightning program to new heights.
#Playoff Wins, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!