The Upper Montgomery Lightning had two weeks to recover from a disappointing loss to Whitman which ended their state playoff aspirations. The team rebounded with a ferocity on Monday afternoon dismantling Northwest / Quince Orchard 14-1 in a game that was over almost as soon as it began. The game reached running clock status before the first period ended with the Lightning exploding out to a 7-0 lead before the opening period ended. As the number one overall seed in the Montgomery Hockey Conference season ending Varsity Tournament, the Lightning were matched up against the lowest seeded team. The Montgomery Hockey Conference Varsity Tournament is a post-season tournament for all Montgomery County hockey programs that did not qualify for the state playoff tournament.
The first period could not have gone worse for Northwest / Quince Orchard. In addition to being outshot twenty to five in the opening frame, Northwest / Quince Orchard was porous defensively leaving senior goaltender Ryan Stillwell out to dry time after time. Playing without top offensive student athletes, Nathan Cassel and Ryan Jacobson, with senior forward Olivia Robbins playing only two shifts before her external travel team commitment, and with both Landon and Brandon Bernard only playing the first period, the Lightning still easily trashed the overmatched Jaguars.
Less then a minute into the game, Upper Montgomery took the lead and never looked back. On the first shift of the game, a nice defensive zone breakout led to the opening goal of the game. Upper Montgomery defender Owen Robbins reversed the puck in the left corner of his defensive zone to Lightning forward Josh Nadler. Nadler sent the puck up the boards to senior center and co-captain Chris Hassett on the right wing. Hassett sent a cross ice pass through the neutral zone to senior forward Brandon Bernard. Bernard entered the offensive zone down the left wing side of the ice. As he entered the left faceoff circle, he placed the puck behind the net to Hassett. Hassett curled out in front of the net and passed to Nadler in the slot. Nadler took the puck from his backhand to his forehand and shot towards the goal. Nadler’s shot was blocked by the Jaguars defense with the puck landing near Bernard. Bernard quickly shot low blocker side and Stillwell was unable to come up with the save as he searched in vain for the puck’s location.
On the next shift Upper Montgomery increased the lead to 2-0. From a faceoff in the right faceoff circle in the Upper Montgomery offensive zone, Northwest / Quince Orchard was able to clear the puck over the blue line to neutral ice. Lightning junior defender Andrew Botti dumped the puck deep into the right corner of the Jaguars’ defensive zone. Upper Montgomery junior forward, Henry Honacki arrived first and he retrieved the puck. Honacki then lost control of the puck as he was coming around the net with the puck sliding back to Botti at the left point. Botti’s snap shot sailed wide of the net careening into the right corner. Lightning senior forward Olivia Robbins won a race to the puck and battle for possession. She took the puck to the doorstep of the crease where she encountered traffic, losing the puck. Standing in the center of the crease Hassett popped the loose puck over Stillwell for his first goal of the evening. Two shifts into the game, Upper Montgomery was ahead by two goals.
Northwest / Quince Orchard was able to survive the third shift of the game without giving up a goal, but not the fourth. An errant Northwest / Quince Orchard shot rattled around the boards to Lightning sophomore forward Philip Shkeda along the left wing at his defensive blue line. Shkeda’s cross ice pass found Nadler on the right wing. Nadler then entered the Upper Montgomery offensive zone and sent a pass over to Lightning senior co-captain Hunter Cameron playing center in this game. Cameron dished the puck to Shkeda in the slot and cut to the far right post. Shkeda returned the puck to Cameron as he neared the goal. Cameron was able to get his blade on the pass sending a backhand deflection past Stillwell’s glove hand and over the goal line. With just over three minutes played in the game, Upper Montgomery led Northwest / Quince Orchard 3-0. All three goals had been scored by Lightning forwards standing alone in the slot and crease area.
Two minutes later Upper Montgomery was ahead 4-0. Off of a rewind in the neutral zone, Cameron sent the puck from the left wing at his own defensive blue line to Lightning sophomore defender Brady Berkhammer entering the offensive zone along the right wing. Berkhammer took the puck down into the right corner where he found Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Aiden Zheng out in front of the net. Zheng’s one time slap shot went high blocker over Stillwell for his first career varsity goal.
Less than an minute later, on the same shift, Zheng doubled his career goal total with his second goal of the game. A Northwest / Quince Orchard turnover resulted in the puck being kept in at the right point by Bernard. Bernard sent a banked pass off the boards past a falling Jaguars defender. The puck went to Lightning defender Owen Robbins in deep. Robbins curled in the right faceoff circle and turned to skate deeper in the offensive zone. As he did so, he located Zheng standing alone in front. Robbins’ pass found Zheng who shot low far side past Stillwell’s blocker from almost the same spot in the slot as his prior goal. With nine minutes remaining in the first period, Upper Montgomery was out to an early 5-0 lead.
The Northwest / Quince Orchard coaching staff called timeout to settle down their squad. For a few minutes it seemed to work. Upper Montgomery was unable to score for the next three minutes of game action. Then, the Jaguars earned the first powerplay of the game when Berkhammer was called for a roughing penalty with six minutes left in the period. Upper Montgomery’s penalty killers took the play to the Jaguars while shorthanded forcing Northwest / Quince Orchard’s all around best playmaker, senior Brady Graham to take an interference penalty ending the Jaguars powerplay thirty seconds early.
Once Berkhammer’s penalty ended, Upper Montgomery went on an abbreviated powerplay of its own. As the powerplay neared conclusion, the Lightning would score a powerplay goal for the fourth consecutive game. The puck was dumped into the far right corner of the Jaguars defensive zone by the Upper Montgomery defense. Lightning depth forward, senior Adam Levine crashed into the offensive zone and caused a turnover, stealing the puck from the Northwest / Quince Orchard defender. With possession of the puck behind the net, Levine pivoted out in front and shot short side on Stillwell who made the save. Hassett chased down the rebound back in the right corner and he sent a pass back to Robbins at the center of the high slot. Robbins’ wrist shot was deflected by Levine on its way to the net. The puck whizzed just wide of the right goal post and caromed off the end board behind the net. The puck ricocheted back into the crease area beside the net where Bernard chipped the puck over the glove hand of Stillwell into the net.
With a minute left in the opening period, Upper Montgomery would tally its seventh and final goal of the period. Off of a faceoff from the left faceoff circle in the offensive zone, Hassett won the draw to Shkeda on the left wing. Shkeda sent a swing pass to Upper Montgomery junior depth defender Cole Howerton at the right point. Howerton’s shot accelerated high towards the net where it was deflected in front by Hassett. The puck quickly plummeted down and past Stillwell’s skates. It was Howerton’s first career varsity point. The first period mercifully came to a close with Honacki taking a lazy tripping penalty to close out the period. Lightning senior goalie, Landon Bernard was a bystander to the action making just five saves in the first period and having a very easy time of it. So much so, that the Lightning coaching staff inserted ninth grade backup goaltender Ilan Shterenberg to finish out the last two periods of action. For Shterenberg, it was his first varsity action in a couple of months, and was a reward for his outstanding play in net for the Lightning junior varsity.
The second and third periods of the game were played with running clock. Upper Montgomery was easily able to kill off Honacki’s penalty. The Lightning suffered another skater disadvantage when the team took a bench minor for a verbal disagreement with the officiating crew after the officials missed calling a blatant wipe out, blow ’em up check in front of the Northwest / Quince Orchard net. While on their second penalty kill of the period, the Lightning penalty killers lifted up the coaches. Hassett, who was the skater wiped out in front on the vicious hit that warranted a major penalty being called, dumped the puck around the Northwest / Quince Orchard defensive zone from right to left. Berkhammer was first to the puck with aggressive penalty kill pressure. He pushed the puck down into the left corner and then eventually passed the puck to Hassett stationed behind the net. Hassett swung around the net traveling from the left post to the right post before wrapping the puck around Stillwell’s left leg pad. His shot along the ice entered the back of the net for the shorthanded goal and his hat trick.
A minute and fifteen seconds later, on the next shift, the Upper Montgomery lead would grow to 9-0. Honacki had the puck behind his own net at the end of his shift. He fired the puck down the ice so that he could get off on a line change. Cameron raced down the ice and got to the puck first and before it crossed the end line for icing. Corralling the puck in the left corner, he continued around the net to the top of the right faceoff circle. Cameron fired a pass across the ice to Botti. Botti teed up a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle and riffled the puck short side past Stillwell’s right shoulder. It was Botti’s first goal of the season since returning from the upper body injury that kept him out of the first half of the Lightning’s season.
The Lightning returned to the powerplay when Jaguars forward Fletcher Shupe was called for interference for throwing a body check. Deep into the powerplay, Upper Montgomery would score its second powerplay goal of the game. In his defensive zone, Howerton intercepted a Jaguars pass on a shorthanded rush up ice. He banked the puck off the left wing boards in his defensive zone to Honacki along the wall. With the Jaguars forwards caught up ice, Honacki went in on a two on one rush with Hassett. Honacki layered a backhand saucer pass over to Hassett in the slot. Hassett faked right on his forehand, then slid the puck back to his left, and pushed a backhander past Stillwell’s blocker inside the far post. As with most of the goals scored by Upper Montgomery in the game, Stillwell had little chance. The score was now 10-0 with half of regulation time remaining.
On the next shift, the lead would become eleven. Lightning ninth grade defender Miles Wendland broke up play along the left wing at the Upper Montgomery defensive blue line. Wendland bumped the puck to Levine in the neutral zone. Levine immediately found Zheng cutting up ice with speed. Zheng skated all the way into the Jaguars defensive zone down the left wing boards. Levine followed the play and went right down the middle of the ice toward the crease. Zheng pulled up at the bottom of the left faceoff circle and passed toward the slot. Levine rushed to catch up with the puck and while falling jammed the puck past Stillwell on the short side past his blocker and right leg pad. It was Levine’s first goal of the season and gave him exactly one goal in each of his four seasons of varsity play. With Wendland’s assist on the play, every Lightning skater had registered a point in the game.
At 11-0, the Lightning stopped playing aggressive or competitive hockey. The team did everything it could to not further embarrass the Jaguars. The rest of the second period was played with Upper Montgomery in control of play and choosing not to attack the net. The second period ended with the score 11-0 and with Upper Montgomery outshooting Northwest / Quince Orchard fifteen to two in the period.
The start of the third period was interesting. Just twenty seconds into the final session, Northwest / Quince Orchard ended the Upper Montgomery combined shutout bid, kind of. Looking to get any action at all, Shterenberg traveled out of his crease into the right corner to prevent a Jaguars clear from becoming icing. Shterenberg attempted to fire the puck up ice to start an Upper Montgomery defensive zone breakout. His pass went up the right wing boards past the Lightning defense where it was intercepted at the blue line by Northwest / Quince Orchard’s leading scorer, center Ethan Custodio. Custodio had a clear path to the net and easily fired before Shterenberg had any opportunity to get back near the goal crease. It was a learning moment for the young goaltender and surely he will not unnecessarily press play in future seasons.
After the early Northwest / Quince Orchard gifted goal, the third period settled into a period where both teams really just wanted the clock to run and for the game to end. And, for the next five minutes of action that is precisely what occurred. Upper Montgomery really had stopped playing in the offensive end. After posting 35 shots on goal over two periods, the Lightning held themselves down to only seven shots on goal in the third period. The Jaguars remained totally inept tallying only one more shot on goal aside from Custudio’s empty net strike.
With just over nine minutes remaining in the game, Upper Montgomery once again found the back of the net. A Northwest / Quince Orchard turnover in their own defensive zone started the scoring play. Zheng intercepted the bad Jaguars pass and shoved the puck to the left wing boards. Honacki retrieved the puck and attempted to throw the puck into the slot. His pass was blocked by a unknowing Jaguars defender and the puck was back along the boards. Cameron gathered the puck and shot it toward the crease looking to set up Zheng for a hat trick. His centering attempt hit a Jaguars defender’s skate and deflected past Stillwell who had moved over to play what he thought would be an upcoming shot from the slot.
At the six and a half minute mark, Graham was called for a high sticking penalty putting Upper Montgomery back on the powerplay. For the third time in the game, the Lightning powerplay would make the Jaguars pay. Wendland’s long range wrist shot from the right point missed the net. Shkeda retrieved the puck in the left corner easily outskating the tired and defeated Jaguars. He moved up the boards and reversed the puck off the boards to Hassett back in the left corner. Hassett continued out of the left corner to the left faceoff circle where he fired a harmless shot on goal. With traffic in front, it appeared that Stillwell did not pick up the shot until late allowing the puck to slide between his pads five hole. It finished off a career high five goal game for Hassett who spent the final six minutes of the game plastered to the bench.
At 13-1 every line change was extended to help burn more time off the clock and help get the game over. With a minute and a half remaining, Upper Montgomery would put the finishing touch on their blowout victory. Another Northwest / Quince Orchard turnover set up the Lightning. A bad Jaguars clearing attempt was picked off by Honacki. He skated a few strides to the right wing boards and fed Zheng with a backhand pass in the slot. Zheng’s first shot was saved by Stillwell. Zheng followed the puck to the net and he was rewarded when the rebound connected with his right skate. In the ensuing goal mouth scramble, the puck wound up in the back of the net for his first career hat trick. As the game mercifully ended, the Jaguars’ Graham was assessed multiple misconduct penalties for firing a shot at Shterenberg after the final buzzer had sounded. It was very bad sportsmanship on Graham’s part, but the Lightning were already thinking ahead to Wednesday’s upcoming Montgomery Hockey Conference Varsity Tournament semifinal game.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Aiden Zheng scored his first career varsity goal and also added two additional scores for his first career hat-trick. Zheng also added two assists for a career high five point game.
- Lightning senior co-captain and leading scorer Chris Hassett scored a career high five goals and tied his career high with six points.
- Upper Montgomery senior forward Adam Levine scored in his final game as a participant with the Lightning program. He will miss the rest of the season with an upper body injury.
- Lightning junior defender Cole Howerton recorded his first career varsity points with two assists.
- Upper Montgomery junior forward Henry Honacki set a career high with four assists.
- In a program first, every Lightning skater recorded a point in the game.
- Lightning ninth grade defender Miles Wendland registered his first career multi-point game with two assists.
- Upper Montgomery scored on all three of the team’s powerplay opportunities, doubling their season total for powerplay goals. It was the fourth consecutive game that Upper Montgomery converted while playing with the extra skater. The Lightning had misfired on their first 43 powerplays to begin the season.
- Shots on goal for the game were vastly slanted in favor of the Lightning. Upper Montgomery limited itself to only firing 42 shots at Northwest / Quince Orchard goalie Ryan Stillwell. Northwest / Quince Orchard managed just 9 shots on net and one was the direct pass empty net goal.
- Next up for Upper Montgomery is a Montgomery Hockey Conference Varsity Playoff Tournament semifinal game against the Sherwood Warriors. Upper Montgomery will be looking for redemption after falling to the Warriors 9-7 way back on Halloween evening. Game time is 5:30 pm on Wednesday, February 28th at Skate Frederick.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Chris Hassett—Upper Montgomery Center—5 Goals, 1 Assist
Second Star—Hunter Cameron—Upper Montgomery Forward—2 Goals, 2 Assists
Third Star—Aiden Zheng—Upper Montgomery Forward—3 Goals, 2 Assists