The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity begins defense of their 2021 – 2022 season junior varsity championship on the road versus the third ranked Whitman Vikings. With the change in junior varsity eligibility rules for this season, the Upper Montgomery program knew that many of the younger student athletes would take on a more prominent role this season. After finishing the regular season with a 4-4-2 record, and 2-2-2 in conference play, the best description of the team’s regular season play would be categorized as streaky and uneven. Some good sprinkled in with some poor play, which is not surprising for a young squad. Now, the playoffs provide the team with an opportunity to redefine their season as something more.
Upper Montgomery enters the playoff matchup on Monday shorthanded. Both junior defender Sean Levine and sophomore team captain Josh Nadler will miss the game. Both student athletes will serving supplemental discipline issued by the Maryland Student Hockey League for their actions in the final regular season game against Carroll County. Levine is absent for coming to the aid of teammate Henry Honacki who had been sucker punched by a Carroll County skater. While Levine’s actions were not pugilistic in nature, his penalty carried an automatic one game suspension. Nadler will miss the Whitman game for engaging in a fight at the end of the Carroll County game. Should Upper Montgomery prevail, both student athletes would be eligible to return for the semifinal round of the junior varsity playoffs.
Several Lightning student athletes will receive significant ice time to offset the losses of Levine and Nadler. Expect sophomore center Henry Honacki and senior center Stephen Shkeda to skate every other shift down the middle. Honacki leads the team in scoring with (10 GP, 12G, 5A) coming off a program record five goal and six point game versus Carroll County. Shkeda (8GP, 2G, 4A) has played the most games in Upper Montgomery team history (74 and counting) heading into the game against Whitman. Over the past four years, Shkeda has played in almost every situation. His work ethic and enthusiasm provide necessary energy to the team. His leadership and attitude will be heavily replied upon in this game.
Sophomore TJ Gottesman (7GP, 4G, 9A), junior Adam Levine (10GP, 3G, 4A), and sophomore defender Cole Howerton (10GP, 2G, 4A) will need to be factors in the game for Upper Montgomery to be successful. The play of these three student athletes has improved over the second half of the season. Now they will be counted on to raise their level of play even more. In goal Landon Bernard will need to play exceptionally well for Upper Montgomery to pull the upset. Bernard has been excellent in goal over the past six weeks and is capable of stealing this game on his own. The Lightning needs to play very well defensively in front of him so that he is not faced with constant odd skater rushes against.
Whitman finished the junior varsity regular season with a 5-1-1 record, with their loss coming to top ranked Walter Johnson and their tie coming against Wootton. Upper Montgomery lost to Wootton 9-2 earlier in the season. Whitman is a stingy defensive team having given up only twelve goals in their five games. Expect Ryan Graf to backstop the Vikings in net. Graf has three shutouts already this season and has given up only one goal in four games. Defensively the Vikings are led by sophomore Mark Buckley and twin ninth graders Cooper Schultz and Will Schultz. With evenly distributed scoring, the Vikings are led offensively by Trevor Fay, Ben Lammers, Ben Luo, and Shane Churilla. Whitman has received additional depth scoring as well throughout the season.
Upper Montgomery will need to compete for a full 36 minutes on Monday evening. Facing a team that is very skilled and plays a suffocating defensive style, it will be hard for the Lightning to match up. Missing Levine and Nadler from the lineup makes the task even more difficult. The junior varsity playoffs are a one and done tournament. Upper Montgomery will need to claw and fight the entire game to remain competitive and give the team a chance to win down the stretch. A super performance from Bernard might just be enough to carry the Lightning into the semifinals.