In thrilling fashion, the Upper Montgomery Lightning won its first ever division one varsity playoff game late Friday night with a come from behind 2-1 overtime victory against the St. Johns Cadets. With the win, Upper Montgomery advances to face long-time perennial powerhouse Churchill in the quarterfinals of the division one playoffs. The winner of next Friday’s game will advance to the Maryland state high school playoff tournament. The game against Churchill will be Upper Montgomery’s first ever chance to earn a state playoff berth.
In Upper Montgomery’s first ever overtime game, Lightning forward Hunter Cameron finished off a two on one rush with a forehand snapshot into a wide open net. The play originated deep in the Lightning defensive zone. Lightning center and leading scorer Chris Hassett swung the puck from behind the Upper Montgomery goal up the right wing boards to George Benedick. Benedick protected the puck with his body. While shielding the puck from the St. Johns’ attacking skater, he placed a neat little spinning backhand pass into open ice toward Cameron in the center of the defensive zone. Behind the net, Hassett collided with the onrushing St. Johns’ defender who then lost his balance and dropped his stick behind the goal. Hassett alertly beat the St. Johns skater up ice as he went to retrieve his stick creating the two on one rush with Cameron.
As they entered the offensive zone, the lone remaining defender closed in on Cameron. Seeing the defender’s positioning, Cameron made the correct read and sent the puck over to Hassett coming down the off wing on the left side of the ice. Cameron’s pass was an aerial pass, knee high, and Hassett did an excellent job knocking the puck out of mid-air while also maintaining control of the puck. In doing so, he traveled wide of the net on his backhand with a poor angle to get off a quality shot. Instead, with St. Johns goalie Jack Faricy committing to Hassett and expecting a likely shot on goal, Hassett backhand passed the puck across the ice to Cameron who was wide open in front of the net at the right post. Cameron buried the cross ice return pass into the empty net from three feet in front of the net and two feet outside the right post. The goal sent the jubilant Lightning bench pouring over the boards into a mob pile along the far boards surrounding Cameron. For Cameron, it was a memorable way to score his first goal of the season and sent the Upper Montgomery spectators into a wild celebration.
The game itself was a gritty and tightly contested contest. Exactly what one would expect in a playoff game. Upper Montgomery defended all over the ice and limited the Cadets scoring opportunities. St. Johns managed just 23 shots on goal for the game and went a long stretch of the second and third period with zero shots. This included a four minute span of the second period where the Lightning were forced to play with six skaters on the ice after Upper Montgomery’s goalie Landon Bernard lost a skate blade that needed to be replaced on the bench. It was an unbelievable circumstance that added a level of drama as Upper Montgomery tried to fend off the Cadets and earn their first ever division one playoff victory. Imagine four minutes of game action with no goalie. It was close to a miracle that St. Johns was unable to score. Many in attendance had never seen anything like it.
From the outset it was clear that Upper Montgomery was the better team, even while missing two important forwards, Nathan Cassell and Ryan Jacobson. Cassel and Jacobson are the Lightning’s second and third leading scorers. The Lightning earned eight powerplays during the game, but were unable to mount much pressure with the extra skater, likely a function of missing both Cassel and Jacobson. When Upper Montgomery was able to tilt the ice, St. Johns’ netminder, Jack Faricy was there to make critical and timely saves to keep the Cadets in the game.
With two and a half minutes remaining in the first period, St. Johns would jump in front with Cadets leading scorer Teddy Kurowski scoring a shorthanded goal. Unfortunately for the Lightning, the play was two feet offside, a call that was missed by both referees. Cadets’ defender Thomas Pilkington shot the puck in on net from the neutral zone. Lightning netminder Landon Bernard blocker padded the shot to the corner. Kurowski raced into the zone while a St. Johns forward was skating to get back onsides. Kurowski entered the zone early placing the play offside. While play continued, Kurowski collected the puck which should have immediately stopped play. Bernard made the save on Kurowski’s initial shot which went low to his stick side. The puck bounded back to Kurowski who skated one more step to his right as he beat Bernard low glove hand into the far side of the net. St. Johns had a 1-0 lead with two minutes remaining in the first period, the Cadets most effective period of the game. Shots on goal in the first period were St. Johns with twelve and Upper Montgomery with eight.
The St. Johns lead would hold until ten minutes remained in the second period. Upper Montgomery would get on the board when Lightning 9th grade forward Philip Shkeda scored off of a two on one play with Brandon Bernard. The play began ten seconds after the end of a St. Johns powerplay. A fine defensive play and pass up ice by Lightning forward Olivia Robbins made the play. St. Johns rewound in the neutral zone. Robbins stacked up the blue line and blocked the St. Johns entry play with her skates, directing the puck back into the neutral zone. St. Johns attempted for a second time to dump the puck into the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. This time, Robbins blocked the puck again with her skates, but was able to play the puck with her stick up the ice. Her pass went to Bernard standing just outside the offensive blue line. Bernard entered the zone with Shkeda cutting down the left wing. Bernard was poke checked by the St. Johns defender with the puck sliding over to Shkeda. Shkeda’s wrist shot went far side toward Faricy’s glove hand. The knuckling puck snuck just under Faricy’s catching mitt sort of seven hole to tie up the game. Shots on goal in the second period were heavily one sided in favor of the Lightning, fourteen to three.
The score would remain even at one for the final 25 minutes of regulation setting up the climatic three on three overtime session. Prior to the end of third period each team had to kill off a late powerplay. First, Lightning team captain Benedick was called for roughing with 4:30 remaining. Then, Kurowski evened up the number of skaters by also taking a roughing penalty with 3:45 remaining in regulation. With a minute and fifteen seconds of late powerplay time, Upper Montgomery failed to convert. Shots on goal in the third period were Upper Montgomery with thirteen and St. Johns with eight.
Overtime would last just one minute and ten seconds before Cameron’s deciding goal. For Cameron it was redemption after struggling for much of his junior season. Sending Upper Montgomery to next week’s quarterfinal matchup against Churchill wiped away a season of personal disappointment.
Upper Montgomery will be a prohibitive underdog against Churchill. A massive underdog one would conclude. The Bulldogs have not lost a county or state playoff game in nine years. The Bulldogs have won eight of the past nine Maryland state championships. The only time Churchill was not state champions was during the recent COVID season when too many Bulldog student athletes were unavailable to play while in quarantine and Churchill was not permitted to compete in the state playoffs.
Upper Montgomery is going to need to play together and within the defensive system that the coaching staff is installing for the matchup. Make no mistake, it will take an unbelievable effort. A Lightning victory would be the greatest upset in the history of Maryland high school ice hockey. That is not an understatement, just a fact. One team has not lost a county or state playoff game in nine seasons, with eight straight state titles when they were allowed to compete, the other team won its first every playoff game this past Friday night. Upper Montgomery has never played Churchill to within three goals. Join the Lightning faithful this upcoming Friday night to see if the Lightning can make history and rain on Churchill’s parade to this year’s state playoffs. It’s time to shock the world!
#Our Time, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!
The remaining teams alive in the Montgomery Hockey Conference varsity playoffs are:
Wootton (9) versus Walter Johnson (1)
Upper Montgomery (7) versus Churchill (2)
Richard Montgomery (6) versus Quince Orchard (3)
Whitman (5) versus BCC (4)
Game Notes:
- Shots on goal for the game were lopsided, Upper Montgomery with 36 while St. Johns managed only 23.
- Upper Montgomery was very poor on the powerplay finishing 0-8, and giving up a shorthanded goal.
- The Upper Montgomery penalty kill was a perfect 4-4.
- Landon Bernard stopped 22 of 23 shots for his first career varsity playoff victory.
- The game was Upper Montgomery’s first ever overtime game.
- With the victory, the Lightning will enter the top fifteen in the Maryland state public high school ice hockey rankings. The team will be ranked 23rd overall when the private high schools are included.
- Upper Montgomery will seek to claim its first ever Maryland state ice hockey playoff berth next Friday night against the mighty (and historically unbeatable) Churchill Bulldogs. Game time is 9:00 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. In early November, Churchill easily handled Upper Montgomery by a score of 8-2.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Hunter Cameron—Upper Montgomery Forward—Game Winning Overtime Goal
Second Star—Jack Faricy—St. Johns Goalie—34 Saves, .944 Save Percentage, 2 Goals Against
Third Star—Philip Shkeda—Upper Montgomery Forward–-1 Goal