Lightning JV Holds on for Season Opening Win Against BCC

The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity squad held off BCC and claimed a hard fought 3-2 victory in the season opener Monday evening at the Laurel Ice Gardens. Coming off a season in which the junior varsity was overmatched against the opposing teams in the county, grabbing a big two points in the season opener was a much needed confidence boost for the young team.

The Lightning controlled the puck for most of the first period. Many of the Lightning shots either misfired wide of the net or were blocked in front, never reaching Barons goalie Vivienne Boyle. At the very end of the first period the Lightning would beat the horn and score a late goal. George Benedick applied strong back pressure coming out of the offensive zone and forced a turnover at center ice along the far boards. A quick pass up the boards to Adam Levine turned into a two on one rush. Levine skated into the zone and slid a perfectly timed pass over to Benedick who had hustled up the ice to create the two on one advantage. The pass found Benedick in alone. He snapped a wrist shot back against the direction that Boyle had come from, and into the wide open portion of the net with two seconds remaining in the first period.

The second period saw play open up a bit with more flow to the game. Each team would have eight shots on net in the period and each would score a goal. The Barons would strike first less than two minutes into the period on a goal by Shisui Torii tying the game. The Lightning would reclaim the lead on Josh Nadler’s first career high school goal. After a BCC dump in to the right of the Lightning net, defender Ethan Hockey won the race to the puck firing the puck behind the net and outside the defensive zone along the far wing. The puck eluded all of the Barons’ skaters and was chased down by Nadler in the top of the right circle in the Barons defensive zone. He released a wrist shot from the bottom of the circle. Boyle was able to partially save the shot, but the puck trickled through and just over the goal line near the far post.

In the third period the Lightning were focused on defense and protecting their 2-1 lead, registering only two shots in the period. Off of a face off in the neutral zone, the puck was batted back to Ethan Hockey. He skated up ice and into the Barons defensive zone where in the middle of the slot area he lost the puck. The puck deflected directly to Josh Nadler who was able to elude Boyle and deposit the puck in a wide open net. Nadler’s second goal of the game gave the Lightning a 3-1 lead with seven minutes left in the third period. Over the last seven minutes of the game, the Barons pushed forward in an effort to claw back into the game. Lightning sophomore netminder Landon Bernard (16 saves) turned away some quality chances before surrendering a late goal to Sam Levy with 28 seconds remaining in the game. However, off the ensuing faceoff at center ice, the Lightning controlled the puck and were able to kill off the remaining time with no further threat from the Barons.

The Lightning JV will look to make it back to back victories to begin the season this Thursday afternoon versus Richard Montgomery at the Laurel Ice Gardens.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *