In a game with several student athletes missing the contest due to travel team commitments, the St. Johns Cadets downed the Upper Montgomery Lightning 4-1 in the regular season finale for both teams. To a person, the student athletes and the coaching staff were not pleased with the performance against St. Johns, in what might have been the team’s weakest performance of the season. It was not the way to honor the program’s three seniors, James Botti, Adarsh Nair, and Joshua Miller who were each celebrated prior to the start of the game. With the loss, the Lightning will enter next week’s Montgomery Hockey Conference Division One playoffs on a four game losing streak. The playoff bracket will be released in the next few days, but expectations are that Upper Montgomery will open the playoffs as a road team seeded somewhere between nine and eleven out of the twelve team field.
The game started sluggishly with both teams struggling to find any rhythm. Three minutes into the game Cadet’s defender Joseph Krauth took a hooking penalty. Maybe it was the absence of having Ryan Jacobson and Nathan Cassel available that disrupted the Lightning’s flow with the advantage, but the powerplay fizzled with very little zone time. As Krauth’s penalty ended, Lightning Center Bradley Cupples was called for high sticking. It took only six seconds for the Cadets to capitalize. Blake Russell cleanly won a faceoff in the right faceoff circle. The puck went straight back to Krauth at the right point. He took one stride to the middle of the ice and blasted a snap shot through traffic and past Lightning netminder Will Mellen on the glove side.
The next six minutes of game action saw the Lightning struggle to enter the offensive zone against St. Johns’ smothering defense. When Upper Montgomery was able to generate some offensive zone time, the shots directed on net against Cadet’s netminder Julian Goodfellow were not high quality chances. With three and a half minutes left in the first period, Lightning forward Olivia Robbins was called for slashing in the neutral zone. Upper Montgomery’s best offensive chance came while shorthanded when Chris Hassett and Hunter Cameron came in alone on a two on zero rush. Hassett’s pass across the crease was just a bit too deep toward the net and Cameron did not have much net to shoot at. Goodfellow was able to make a left leg pad save on the chance. The Lightning were able to kill off the remainder of the shorthanded advantage, but just after Robbins was released from the penalty box, the St. Johns lead would grow.
Cadet’s defender Thomas Pilkington collected the puck in the offensive zone along the left boards near his point position. He curled toward the middle of the ice along the blue line. He had time and space. He cut around a Lightning skater stickhandling into the high slot area, where he made another nifty move around a Lightning defender before finally snapping a shot far side past Mellen’s glove hand. It was a goal that never should have been scored as two Lightning student athletes had opportunities to body Pilkington and dislodge him from the puck. Shots on goal in the first period were nine to eight in favor of the Lightning.
The Lightning started the second period on the powerplay after a high sticking penalty to John Stanek. Upper Montgomery was unable to mount any real threat. In the middle of the second period, the Lightning were able to kill off a shorthanded situation after Andrew Botti was called for roughing. With just under three minutes remaining in the period, St. Johns would score an insurance goal, the result of poor defensive coverage by Upper Montgomery.
Off of a recoil in the neutral zone, Krauth passed the puck indirect off the left wing boards. The pass was collected by Austin Kirika who bumped the puck forward a few feet to William Spicer entering the zone with speed down the left wing side. Spicer cut in front of the Lightning defender which caused Andrew Botti to come over from his left defensive position to help stop Spicer. Spicer extended his stick and poked the puck toward the low slot area where Russell was all alone. Russell collected the puck, made a quick deke, and jammed the puck past Mellen’s right leg as Mellen shifted over toward the middle of the net in an attempt to stop Russell. Shots on goal in the second period were Lightning with eleven and St. Johns with nine.
The start of the third period saw Upper Montgomery with a shot lived sliver of hope. Chris Hassett scored early in the third period off of a nice pass from Hunter Cameron to cut the deficit to 3-1. Hassett’s shot beat Goodfellow low, stick side. Then, thirty seconds later, the Lightning went on the powerplay with an opportunity to further shrink the Cadets lead when Willem Desimone was called for tripping. However, it was the Cadets who took advantage scoring a shorthanded goal to salt away the game. Spicer took possession of the puck just inside his defensive blue line along the right wing boards. He exited the zone on a two on one advantage and rushed up ice. As he reached the top of the right faceoff circle in the offensive zone Spicer dished the puck over to Russell who tapped the puck past Mellen’s outstretched right leg into the wide open net for the final tally of the game.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery finished the regular season with a 5-7-1 record.
- The Lightning outshot St. Johns 31-25.
- The Lightning penalty kill was 4-5 for the game, allowing a powerplay goal for the first time in months. The Upper Montgomery penalty kill is now 44-48 on the season, an excellent 91.7%.
- The Lightning powerplay struggled all night and was 0-3 in the game.
- Another shorthanded goal given up by the Lightning, the sixth shorthanded goal allowed on the season. All six shorthanded goals against have come in games the Lightning have lost.
- The Lightning will next be in action on Friday night, February 4th versus an undetermined opponent in the first round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference Division One playoffs. This season is the first time in program history that the Lightning have qualified for the Division One playoffs.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Blake Russell—St. Johns Center—2 Goals, 1 Assist
Second Star—Julian Goodfellow—–St. Johns Goalie–Win, 30 Saves, .968 Save%
Third Star—Joseph Krauth—St. Johns Defense—1 Goal