The Upper Montgomery Lightning return to game action on Friday evening versus the top ranked Whitman Vikings. Game time is 8:45 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. Fresh off their dismantling of bottom feeder Northwest, the Lightning will be severely tested by Whitman’s structured team defensive system. The game will finish off a stretch where the Lightning play each of the top four ranked teams in the first five weeks of the season.
The thrashing of Northwest should give the Lightning some confidence. Ten skaters had multiple point games against the Jaguars. Leading scorer Chris Hassett had a hat-trick and three assists. Ethan Hockey scored his first career high school hat-trick and added an assist. Nathan Cassel had two goals and three assists. Philip Shkeda had two goals and two assists. George Benedick had a goal and three assists. The team finally received depth scoring which it has lacked throughout the last several season. Brady Berkhammer had three assists. Brandon Bernard and Adam Levine each had a goal and an assist. Bradley Cupples and Stephen Shkeda each chipped in with two assists. But, it will be much, much tougher to score against Whitman even with the return of Ryan Jacobson to the lineup.
Whitman has given up only ten goals in five league games. If their game against Blair is excluded, the Vikings goals against drops to just four in four games. Their opponents in three of those four games were strong BCC, Walter Johnson, and Wootton, and then Rockville/Magruder. Certainly, the Vikings have played as a stingy defensive unit.
In goal, Landon Bernard will be looking to build off of last week’s shutout over Northwest. He has been solid in net this season and needs to be sharp to limit Whitman’s attack. In a game that is expected to be a low scoring, tight checking defensive game, one goal could likely determine the winner. Whitman will counter in net with either Reed Chricton, 2-1 record, 4.32 goals against average, and .833 save percentage, or Ryan Graf, 2-2 record, 3.26 goals against average, and .888 save percentage. Both netminders have split time this season for the Vikings. The Whitman goalie statistics are inflated by two losses to top tier private schools.
Defensively, the Vikings are led by senior AA travel student athlete Walter Ingis (6GP, 3G, 2A) and sophomore AA travel student athlete Morrison Cohen (5GP, 1G, 8A). The Whitman defense is rounded out by AAA defender Zach Krauss and AA defender Rowan Miller. The Lightning are going to have to find ways to score a few greasy goals as the Vikings’ defense will likely prevent odd skater rushes and stymie fancy offensive play. It will be key for the Lightning to get off to a good start and play with a lead to force the Vikings to press forward and depart their defensive shell.
On offense, the Vikings are led by two AA level travel student athletes, senior Theo Hauptmann (7GP, 4G, 3A) and sophomore Charles Ingis (7GP, 4G, 3A). Nick Huguely and Andrew Fou have chipped in with (7GP, 3G, 4A) each and Jacob Lerman has (7GP, 3G, 3A). Whitman is a counter attack team. The Vikings played smothering defense, wait for the opposition to press offensively, and then take advantage of their odd skater opportunities. Upper Montgomery’s defense pinching in at the offensive blue line will need to be careful as missed pinches will jump start the Vikings offensive attack.
The Lightning should have a complete lineup for just the second time this season. With Upper Montgomery having beaten Whitman each of the last two seasons, the Vikings will be looking for revenge and to keep their number one ranking. This could also be a trap game for Whitman as they play perennial power Churchill next week. Friday night’s game will be a good measure of where the Lightning are as a team and if they should continue to be ranked as one of the top eight teams in the conference.