The Upper Montgomery Lightning return to action this Friday night versus Northwest in a critically important divisional game. Game time is 8:50 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. After the game against the Jaguars, we will have more clarity on team’s playoff aspirations. A loss would be extremely damaging to the team’s chance of qualifying for the playoffs. While a victory would place the Lightning in a prime position to secure one of the final playoff spots over the upcoming weeks.
The Lightning will also be looking to continue their recent unbeaten streak, 2-0-1. Coming off back-to-back victories over Wilson (9-0) and the West Virginia Vipers (6-3), the team is playing some of its best hockey of the season and will be seeking its third straight win.
In net for Upper Montgomery will be Will Mellen. Mellen will get the starting nod with Landon Bernard getting the net on Saturday night for the junior varsity game. His last performance was a shutout win over Wilson just before Thanksgiving.
The defense will have to contain the Jaguars high scoring tandem of Brady Graham (8 goals in 4 games) and Evan Steinberg (3 goals in 4 games). Together, Graham and Steinberg have scored 11 of the 14 goals scored by the Jaguars this season. With a full complement on defense; James Botti, George Benedick, Ethan Hockey, Andrew Gean, and Andrew Botti, look for the team to be stout on defense and play to its goals against average of three goals per game. The team’s penalty kill will need to continue to excel against Northwest. On the season, the Lightning are 19 for 22 on the penalty kill for an 86.3% success rate.
The Lightning’s offense has come to life over the past few games. The team is now averaging 4.5 goals per game. Look for this to increase as the Jaguars have given up the second most goals of any team in the Montgomery Hockey Conference, 39 in six games for a goals against average of 6.5 per game. Upper Montgomery’s top line of Chris Hassett, Ryan Jacobson, and Nathan Cassel have led the way tallying 21 goals and 18 assists thus far on the season. They have been on fire, having been on the ice for 13 of the last 15 goals scored by the Lightning. Getting more balanced scoring and production from the second line (three totals goals this season) and the third line (one goal this season) would help carry the Lightning to victory. Friday’s game will likely come down to stopping Jaguars’ forwards Graham and Steinberg, attacking the Northwest defense and causing turnovers with a heavy forecheck, and the second and third lines chipping in offensively. It should be a good one and a victory over the Jaguars would give the Lightning momentum heading into the cross-division portion of the schedule.