The Upper Montgomery Lightning enter Monday’s non-conference matchup against the Oakdale Bears a little salty after Friday night’s 3-3 tie against the DC Stars. It was a game that the Lightning came back from a goal down on two separate occasions in the third period to reach overtime, then dominated the five minute extra session. Although the first portion of the regular season did not go as anticipated, the Lightning have earned points in four of their past five games with a 3-1-1 record. Upper Montgomery has beaten two highly regarded teams in Walter Johnson and Whitman during the stretch.
Upper Montgomery will be looking to continue its stronger play of late on Monday evening in Frederick. Game time is 8:20 pm. In net for Upper Montgomery will be senior Landon Bernard. Bernard played very well in the team’s last game before winter break. He was one of the primary reasons for Upper Montgomery’s upset win against Whitman stopping 30 of 32 shots on goal (.938 save %) and looking as comfortable in net as he has all season. Bernard was solid against the DC Stars playing behind a lineup that had only one defender dressed for game action. It was a carousel of forwards playing defense in front of Bernard. While his individual statistics have taken a step back this year, if the Whitman performance is any indication, he may be back in the groove. He is aiming for redemption over the final regular season games and in the playoffs. Upper Montgomery will only go as far in the playoffs as Bernard’s play takes the team.
The Bears will play all state nominee Devin Brown in net. Brown sports sparkling numbers this season coming into the game with a 6-1 record, the loss to private school foe Landon. He has a 1.69 goals against average and a .916 save percentage. Brown has cat quick reflexes and uses his agility and athletic ability to prevent goals. It will be very difficult for Upper Montgomery to score. Of note, the Bears have given up ZERO powerplay goals this season. This does not bode well for the Lightning who have failed to score a power play goal all season, now sitting at 0-24 with the extra skater. To say Upper Montgomery has been challenged all season long while on the powerplay is certainly an understatement. The team’s only powerplay goal was scored on a penalty shot converted by Nathan Cassell against Good Counsel. Which team wins on special teams may determine who wins the game.
Upper Montgomery had hoped this season for balanced goal scoring throughout the lineup. Last season’s top line of Chris Hassett, Nathan Cassel, and Philip Shkeda has continued to produce again this season. Unfortunately, it has been a continual search for other student athletes to step up and match last year’s offensive production. Hassett (10GP, 9G, 13A) and Cassell (11GP, 7G, 14A) have alternated the team lead in assists and points throughout the season. Shkeda (11GP, 9G, 2A) is tied for the team lead in goals. From there the season ending injury to Ryan Jacobson (6GP, 4G, 1A) has drastically impacted the Lightning’s secondary offense. Hunter Cameron has chipped in nicely with (8GP, 5G, 3A). He has two different games with two goals scored and he scored the tying goal late in the third period Friday night against the DC Stars. Each of the team’s other forwards, Brandon Bernard, Bradley Cupples, Olivia Robbins, and Henry Honacki have each played well in one or two games where they have accumulated the majority of their points on the season.
Oakdale has dominated the Monocacy Valley Conference all season long with a 9-1 record with their only loss against Landon. The Bears have played many close one or two goal games all season. Oakdale has averaged six goals per game, but that total is skewed with a couple of lopsided games where Oakdale prevailed easily. Where the Bears have shined is defensively and Brown has really helped. Oakdale has given up only 18 goals in their ten games, an average of 1.8 goals per game. Churchill, one of the top teams in the state, played Oakdale tough in a 2-1 loss. The Bears are led offensively by 16U AA level travel forward Kyle Metzler. Metzler has (9GP, 13G, 7A) including three shorthanded goals. Cameron Horan, plays 18U AA, has complemented Metzler and has scored (9GP, 11G, 8A). Tyler Yuhas has (9GP, 6G, 10A).
On defense the Lightning have struggled all season. With top defender Andrew Botti out for the first eight games of the season, Upper Montgomery had difficulty keeping teams out of the high danger areas. Paired with subpar goaltending, the Lightning suffered a pile of losses. With Botti back, the team has given up only three goals in two games, none while he has been on the ice. Botti is expected to return to the lineup after he missed Friday’s game as he was out of town with his external travel team. Senior co-captain Cameron has played several games on defense to help anchor and provide stability on the back end. Sophomore Brady Berkhammer will again see substantial playing time against the Bears after playing every other shift against the DC Stars. Outside of Cameron’s production in October’s season opener against Whitman where he scored both Upper Montgomery goals, all other Upper Montgomery defensive skaters have contributed no goals and twelve assists in 46 combined games played.
Oakdale has received significant offensive production from their defense. Gavin Timberlake, another 16U AA skater has (10GP, 6G 8A). His travel team teammate Thomas Farley has (9GP, 4G, 8A). The rest of the Oakdale defenders play for the Frederick Freeze travel hockey program at the A level. The Bears have a talented and well coached team as evidenced by the very miniscule number of goals they have given up this season.
In almost every game this season, the Upper Montgomery coaching staff was going to be forced to supplement the usual varsity squad with several student athletes called up from the junior varsity. After Adam Levine and Aiden Zheng performed admirably against the DC Stars, expect that the Lightning will lean heavily on the core of their varsity roster against Oakdale. Getting contributions from up and down the lineup will take pressure off of the top line and allow them to receive sufficient rest on the bench between shifts. If Upper Montgomery’s scoring continues to be centralized amongst only the top four skaters, the coaching staff will be forced to constantly rely on just those few top end offensive skaters. This is not a recipe for success as their performance will deteriorate as the game progresses and they become fatigued. If the team’s second and third lines do not produce against the Bears over the first half of the game, expect the coaching staff to begin whittling down ice time and inserting additional student athletes into the game.
The game against Oakdale was intentionally scheduled to prime the club for the upcoming Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. Playing very good non-conference opponents late in the season gets the team prepared to play faster and compete harder heading into a top level playoff matchup against one of the top teams in Montgomery County. The Lightning have begun to show much more fight and desire as the season has progressed and these traits have led to better results. The team’s play is becoming more cohesive, and the total team effort has been better. The Lightning have played more focused and with more belief in each other. Let’s see how that continues to play out on Monday night against a very good opponent.
#Extend the Streak, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!