The Upper Montgomery Lightning used a supreme defensive effort Friday night to defeat the Whitman Vikings 3-2 and avenge a season opening loss to the fourth ranked Vikings. Upper Montgomery goalie Landon Bernard returned to the starting lineup and played his best game of the season in leading the Lightning to victory. The Upper Montgomery defensive effort frustrated and confused the Vikings who are also a stout defensive team. The well earned victory should catapult the Lightning’s confidence now having won three of their last four games and securing wins over second ranked Walter Johnson and now fourth ranked Whitman.
The Lightning played the first period in a defensive shell. The team used a full five person trapping system to neutralize and frustrate the Whitman skaters. Shifts were kept short. Skaters reached the red line and dumped the puck deep into the Whitman defensive zone. The team then sat back and made the Vikings work the puck up ice into the Lightning’s trapping defense. The Vikings inability to solve the Upper Montgomery system led to turnovers entering the Lightning’s defensive zone or shots from wide range near the boards and from long distance. Bernard stopped all ten shot he faced in the opening period while Upper Montgomery was content to focus on defense. The Lightning fired only one shot on Whitman goaltender Ryan Graf. The ‘boring’ period played right into the Lightning’s game plan leaving the score tied at zero after one period of play.
In the second period, Whitman began to play uncharacteristic hockey by their standards. The Vikings began to take chances and press the play. This was counter to their desired defense first system where they counter attack their opponents pressure. Five minutes into the period, Upper Montgomery jumped to the lead. Off of a rewind in the neutral zone after a Whitman turnover, Lightning 9th grade defender Miles Wendland played the puck up along the left wing boards. The puck deflected off of Lightning forward Nathan Cassel’s skate to Lightning senior center and co-captain, Chris Hassett. Outside the blue line, Hassett sent the puck to the left back to Cassel. Cassel skated into the offensive zone and around the outer edge of the left faceoff circle. He then cut to the net. As Graf fronted what he anticipated to be a shot from Cassel, Cassel sent a backhand shovel pass over to Upper Montgomery forward Philip Shkeda. With Graf focused on Cassel’s drive toward the net, Shkeda had a wide open net to slam the puck home.
The Lightning were energized by the goal and their confidence in the newly installed defensive system seemed to grow. At the same time, now trailing, Whitman’s defenders began to take more chances. Three minutes later Upper Montgomery would build on its lead. Third line forward Josh Nadler was elevated to the top line to take a shift and give Cassel a breather after a couple of long hard working shifts. Collecting the puck in his defensive zone, Nadler advanced the puck up the right wing boards to Hassett exiting the zone. The pass eluded the pinching Vikings defender and sent Hassett away with Shkeda on a two on one rush. From the top of the right faceoff circle, Hassett sent a pass over to Shkeda on the left side of the offensive zone. Shkeda unleashed a wrist shot that went across Graf’s body high into the top corner of the net past his glove hand.
The Upper Montgomery defensive pressure continued. While the Vikings were able to begin getting some better looks on Bernard, the athletic goaltender was able to shut the door time after time. With just over two minutes left in the second period, Hassett increased the Upper Montgomery lead to 3-0 with a dazzling individual effort. With Whitman straying from fundamentally sound hockey, a Whitman defender tried to rush the puck from his defensive zone up ice. Once in the neutral zone, Hassett poke checked the puck free. With all Whitman skaters moving up ice, he cut to the left at the offensive blue line. Hassett was able to easily get around the last Whitman defender attempting to get back into the play. Coming down the slot in line with the left goal post, Hassett finished to the opposite side over Graf’s glove just inside the right post.
Whitman would recover on the very next shift and the Vikings got on the scoreboard for the first time in the game. The puck was dug free along the left wing boards in the neutral zone by Whitman defender Morrison Cohen. The puck came to Vikings forward Jacob Lerman, and he took the puck across the ice in the neutral zone. He entered the Upper Montgomery defensive zone along the right wing. From the top of the right faceoff circle he shot back across the grain. A low release slap shot seemed to catch Bernard off guard and off of his angle. Lerman’s shot from long range eluded the Lightning netminder far side high over his blocker. Upper Montgomery was not rattled by the goal and returned to its stalwart defense. The Lightning finished the period strong. At the end of two periods of play, Upper Montgomery held a 3-1 lead.
The third period was evenly contested. Although the Upper Montgomery skaters were tiring, the coaching staff did a nice job of inserting depth skaters into the game to provide rest for the top two forward lines and the team’s top three defenders. The game trudged along as it did during the first period. Lots of Upper Montgomery defending while Whitman was forcing play up the ice. Viking defenders joined in almost every offensive thrust searching for a way to generate qualify offensive chances. This gave Upper Montgomery some counter attack opportunities. Both goaltenders played well during the period to keep each team off the scoreboard.
With just under five minutes remaining in the game, Whitman defender Rowan Miller took a tripping penalty behind his own net. With a two goal lead late in the game, the Upper Montgomery powerplay zero for the season, and missing two of the five members of the powerplay unit, forward Ryan Jacobson (injured) and senior co-captain defender Hunter Cameron (missing the game out-of-town with his external travel team), the coaching staff decided to play it safe. The Lightning continued to play defensive first hockey to prevent any Whitman shorthanded opportunities from developing. Miller’s penalty expired and there were less than three minutes remaining in the game.
Upper Montgomery fought and clawed to get to pucks in the defensive corners and along the boards. The only objective of each skater was simply to get the puck over the defensive blue line and make Whitman again try and enter the offensive zone. Whitman had difficulty gaining the offensive zone and could not easily get Graf pulled for the extra skater. The plan was working extremely well until thirty seconds remained in the game. Upper Montgomery defender Brady Berkhammer had possession of the puck behind his own net. The puck was cleared up the left wing boards. With the Vikings extra skater now on the ice, the puck was cut off along the side boards. The puck volleyed to the middle of the ice where it was kept in the zone by Whitman high scoring forward Andrew Fou. Fou’s pass to the front of the net was pushed aside by Bernard. The puck went to Cohen in the left faceoff circle. Cohen passed across the ice to Whitman forward Samuel Van Leeuwen. Van Leeuwen had beaten the Upper Montgomery defense to the right goal post where he easily tapped in Cohen’s pass to make the score 3-2 with 23 seconds remaining.
One final save by Bernard at the buzzer slammed the door on Whitman. The exhausted but joyous Lightning skaters streamed off the bench to congratulate their netminder on a very fine performance. The win over Whitman could very well do a lot for the team. Bernard seemed to have found his game after stretches of inconsistent play. The Lightning have now won three of their past four games and are beginning to play much better team hockey. The full roster contributed to the win with the depth skaters showing that the could compete and do the job when called upon. Let’s hope that the growing momentum continues after the winter break as the Lightning continue to climb up the league standings and rankings.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery was outshot by Whitman 32-19. Upper Montgomery registered only one shot on goal in the first period.
- Lightning forward Ryan Jacobson suffered a season ending lower body injury while playing with his external travel team. Jacobson will be dearly missed as Upper Montgomery attempts to qualify for the state playoffs for the first time in program history.
- Upper Montgomery’s futility on the powerplay continued. The team has now stared the season 0-21 on traditional powerplays, excluding Nathan Cassel’s penalty shot goal which technically counts as a powerplay marker.
- Upper Montgomery will try to build upon their better play of late when the team returns from winter break. The Lightning will travel to Reston, Virginia to play the DC Stars at SkateQuest. Game time is 9:40 pm on Friday, January 5th.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Landon Bernard—Upper Montgomery Goalie—Win, 30 Saves, .938 Save Percentage
Second Star—Chris Hassett—Upper Montgomery Center—Game Winning Goal, 2 Assists
Third Star—Philip Shkeda—Upper Montgomery Forward—2 Goals