The Upper Montgomery Lightning’s junior varsity quarterfinal game on Friday night versus the Churchill Bulldogs was unprecedented, the full impact of which will not be resolved for several more days. As the final seconds ticked off the clock cementing Upper Montgomery’s 4-1 victory over Churchill the senior referee assigned to the game was losing his mind waiving his arms wildly at center ice pleading that the final two seconds be run off the clock. In what was the most physical game of the season, the Lightning achieved what had eluded them the previous two seasons, a return trip to the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity semifinals. With the victory, the 5-2-2 Lightning will next face off against the top seeded Wootton Patriots.
Entering the contest Upper Montgomery knew that the best way to stifle the Bulldogs was to smother Churchill’s primary offensive threat, Elias Elhallou. The Lightning excelled in keeping Elhallou off the scoresheet, zero points in the game, and constantly playing the body against him. Several times Elhallou was slow getting up after legal body checks.
The beginning and ending of this contest could not have been more different. From the drop of the opening faceoff, each team had very few quality rushes up the ice. The first seven minutes of action were filled with several big collisions, but neither team seemed to find their groove. Upper Montgomery pressured in the offensive zone but continuously missed the net with their shots or made passes that were just out of reach of open skaters. Meanwhile, Churchill had difficult entering the offensive zone as the Lightning’s forwards backchecked well led by Lightning sophomore forward Aiden Zheng. At the eight minute mark of the opening period, Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Max Israfilbek was called for a cross checking penalty in the corner. Upper Montgomery’s penalty kill, 87.7% success rate entering the game, was up to the task. The penalty killers kept the Bulldogs from setting up in the offensive zone by flipping the puck down the ice multiple times will shorthanded.
Just after returning to full strength Upper Montgomery took the lead. The Bulldogs cleared the puck to center ice. Lightning senior defender Patrick Sell took possession of the puck along the right wing just outside his defensive blue line. Sell skated to the center ice red line and dumped the puck into the Churchill defensive zone. The puck rimmed hard around the boards behind the net into the left corner. Upper Montgomery senior center AJ Marks rushed in first to the puck. Marks made a nice backhand pass to the slot for Lightning sophomore forward Jackson Schickler. Schickler fired a left handed snap shot to the far side of the goal along the ice. The puck evaded Churchill ninth grade goalie Cooper Glazer’s left toe sneaking just inside the right goal post. For Schickler, it was his first career high school goal and came at a wonderful time staking Upper Montgomery to a 1-0 lead. Finally, some secondary scoring came through that the team had been lacking over the last few games.
As the last five minutes of the first period ticked off the clock, Upper Montgomery continued to assert control of the pace of the contest. There were very few chances being generated by Churchill as evidenced by their paltry five shots on goal. Upper Montgomery’s ninth grade netminder Porter Stutsrim-Lyons had a rocking chair type of first period. While the Lightning only fired seven shots on goal at Glazer, the puck was consistently in and around the Bulldogs net.
The second period contained more of the same. Upper Montgomery carried play and the Bulldogs had very little offensive thrust. Upper Montgomery would outshoot Churchill eight to four in the middle period. The Lightning pressure paid off three minutes into the second period when Churchill defender Cyrus Sawyer was called for a minor penalty for slashing. The powerplay proved to be vital as Upper Montgomery came through with the extra skater advantage to take a 2-0 lead in the game.
Churchill cleared the puck from their defensive zone down the ice to Stutsrim-Lyons. He blocked the puck to the right of the goal. From the right faceoff circle in his defensive zone, Lightning captain, senior defender Cole Howerton sent an outlet pass to Upper Montgomery sophomore center Jake Hudson in the neutral zone. The puck was just out of reach of Hudson as well as the Churchill defender covering him. The puck went through to the left wing where Hudson’s younger bother Luke Hudson was skating up ice. Luke Hudson picked up the puck and headed into the offensive zone. He sent a backhand pass from the left faceoff circle to the slot for his brother. Jake Hudson lined up a wrist shot from the slot and fired through a screen. The puck danced past Glazer stick side to the inside of the right post for his sixth goal of the season.
Forty-five seconds later the Lightning were back on the powerplay after Sawyer was called for another minor penalty, this time for cross checking. With momentum clearly on their side, if Upper Montgomery could light the lamp one more time, the Lightning would be in total control of the game. Although Upper Montgomery had extended time in the offensive zone, the Lightning could not increase their lead while playing with the additional skater.
A minute after Sawyer’s penalty expired, the Lightning were able to pick up that all important third goal of the game. Churchill had the puck in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. The Bulldogs were putting pressure on the Lightning for one of the few times during the game. Three shots were fired at the net in quick succession, all of which missed the cage going wide of the goal. With the puck along the right wing boards, a Churchill forward sent a blind pass across the ice to no one in particular. Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Decklin Hughes banged the puck out of the Lightning’s defensive zone to relieve the pressure. Zheng sped in and skated in front of a Churchill defender to get the puck. He pushed the puck past the flat footed defender coming into the offensive zone down the right wing side of the ice. He cut to the net patiently waiting as Glazer went to poke check the puck off of his stick. Zheng then calmly continued around the fallen goaltender and easily deposited a backhander into the open side of the net.
As the second period came towards its conclusion, Schickler was being called for a cross checking minor penalty for retaliating in front of the Churchill net. As play was stopped Elhallou softly directed the puck at Stustrim-Lyons. Upper Montgomery’s varsity goalie, Ilan Shterenberg, took exception and cross checked Elhallou well away from the play. It was an unnecessary and selfish roughing penalty after the whistle had been blown that would wind up hurting Upper Montgomery. The Lightning would be down two skaters having to kill off a five on three Bulldog powerplay for a full two minutes. The penalty kill started off well as the Lightning easily made it through the final 23 seconds of the second period without allowing Churchill to set up in the offensive zone. Upper Montgomery entered the second intermission ahead 3-0 needing only fifteen more minutes of sound defensive hockey to more on and advance to the junior varsity playoff semifinals.
Entering the third period Upper Montgomery still had 1:37 left to kill on the Bulldogs five on three powerplay. With excellent penalty killing by Jake Hudson, Zheng, Howerton, and steady senior defender Patrick Sell, the Lightning came within a whisker of killing off the entire Bulldogs powerplay. With fifteen seconds remaining on the advantage, Churchill capitalized to close the score to 3-1. Off of a faceoff outside their defensive blue line, the Lightning won the faceoff but then were unable to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. Churchill defender Mingshou Chang kept the puck in the offensive zone at the left point. His slapshot reached Stutsrim-Lyons who made a stick save putting the puck into the right corner. Bulldogs forward Victor Levonenko got to the loose puck and sent it back to the center point of the blue line to Chang. Chang had time and space to skate down the slot where he fired a wrist shot high over Stutsrim-Lyons’ right shoulder into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Twenty seconds later the game went off the rails due to the officiating failures. Lightning ninth grade defender Matt Rivera took a checking from behind penalty crunching Levonenko into the end boards. Levonenko got up aggressively charged after Rivera and tackled him to the ice. The Churchill forward’s actions seemingly negating the upcoming Churchill powerplay with his retaliation. The senior referee acknowledged that Levonenko’s response was a roughing penalty but that he was not going to call a penalty on Churchill because Levonenko had been hit from behind into the boards. The acknowledgement that there would be no penalty called on Levonenko even though he had committed an infraction incensed the Lightning coaching staff. To top off the situation, rather than call the penalty that had occurred, the senior referee called an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Upper Montgomery for questioning that decision leading to a second consecutive five on three powerplay for Churchill.
The Lightning once again leaned heavily on Hudson, Zheng, Howerton, and Sell to kill off the Churchill penalty. Halfway through the penalty kill Howerton contacted Elhallou near the Upper Montgomery goal. The junior official was standing five feet away from the body contact and did not raise his arm signifying a penalty. The senior official was standing past the red line toward the other end of the ice. He also did not raise his arm to signal a penalty. The whistle blew because of Elhallou not immediately getting back to his feet. The junior official stopped play because of the injured Churchill student athlete. Somehow, mysteriously, after a brief consultation, the senior official called a two minute minor roughing penalty on Howerton.
The third minor penalty created a situation that is referred to as stacked penalties. In a stacked penalty situation, the student who takes the third minor penalty is ushered to the penalty box. The time of the third penalty does not begin running until one of the initial two penalties expires, either through a powerplay goal scored against, or if the initial five on three powerplay is killed off. Then, and only then, does the full two minutes of the third penalty begin. In a stacked penalty situation, if the shorthanded team kills off the five on three powerplay, only one of the students in the penalty box is permitted to leave the penalty box and return to the ice. If both skaters whose penalties have expired depart the penalty box and step onto the ice, there would be five skaters on the ice and still a minor penalty situation (the third penalty) so that team would then have too many skaters on the ice.
There was extensive discussion at the Upper Montgomery bench because the parents staffing the penalty box and at the scorer’s area running the Gamesheet tablet are likely unfamiliar with how a stacked penalty situation should be administered. They happen very infrequently. Upper Montgomery’s penalty killers did a phenomenal job killing off the entire five on three disadvantage. The senior referee skated over to the penalty box area and blocked the Lightning penalty box door from being opened. Thus, he prevented the Upper Montgomery students from leaving the penalty box. At this point the senior official was making hand gestures and he was screaming across the ice that the Upper Montgomery coaching staff should read the rule book. This disrespectful behavior from the senior official continued for multiple minutes of game action. His screaming is loud enough that all spectators in the rink were able to clearly hear what he was saying.
What did this disrespectful behavior result from? It resulted from the senior official NOT KNOWING the rules regarding how stacked penalties work, just the exact message he was screaming over at the Upper Montgomery bench and coaching staff. The result of the senior official physically blocking the penalty box area was that Upper Montgomery had to kill off an additional 59 seconds of a five on three powerplay with only one penalty running on the penalty clock. The Lightning not only killed off the five on three disadvantage, but suffered through an additional minute of play with only three skaters on the ice due to the officiating malpractice.
Rising to the challenge, the Lightning refused to be knocked off stride by the officiating crew. Upper Montgomery’s quartet of penalty killers kept Churchill from scoring on the super elongated extra skater situation. Once Upper Montgomery returned to full strength nine minutes of game action remained. The senior official continued to scream across the ice for several more minutes at the Upper Montgomery bench imploring the coaching staff to “READ THE RULE BOOK”. It was actually the senior official that needed to “READ THE RULE BOOK” and become refreshed on how the stacked penalty rule should be implemented.
A minute after the teams were back at even strength, Zheng scored an insurance goal to once again put Upper Montgomery back up by three goals at 4-1. A Churchill shot in the offensive zone went wide of the net to the left corner. Zheng won the puck battle along the right wing boards. He skated up ice on a slow developing two on one rush. Zheng continued down the right wing side going wide around the Churchill defender. Nearing the net, he fired a wrist shot low blocker side past Glazer for the unassisted goal, his team leading eighth goal of the season.
The next six and a half minutes were played with Upper Montgomery holding their breath that the officiating crew would no longer interfere in the game. Luckily, each game is recorded by a Live Barn video feed. The referees seemed to remove themselves from the game knowing that the Upper Montgomery coaching staff was not going to let the misapplication of the stacked penalty rule go without further disciplinary action against the referees. With a minute and a half remaining in the game and the Lightning holding a 4-1 lead, it looked like Upper Montgomery would glide to the game’s finish. At that point Elhallou was called for a roughing penalty out of frustration for needlessly throwing a body check well away from the play. With a three goal lead and a powerplay, the Lightning seemed most assured of advancing to the semifinals.
Upper Montgomery never really looked to try and score on the powerplay. Instead, the Lightning just looked to keep the clock moving. Unfortunately, on the last rush up ice, the game disintegrated into a circumstance that no one really wanted to see. Upper Montgomery sophomore forward Mason Jagoz was bringing the puck up the ice into the Churchill defensive zone along the right wing boards. Again out of frustration, Sawyer threw an unnecessary body check on Jagoz at the blue line. The hit was totally unnecessary with nine seconds remaining in the contest, but within the rules of hockey.
Israfilbek cross checked Sawyer in retaliation. Churchill defender, Gabriel Li lights up Israfilbek with a pay back body check well away from the play. Li should have earned a two minute minor penalty for roughing which would have been his first minor penalty of the game.
As the students moved into the far corner of the ice and came together, Li comes up high on Israfilbek and should have be assessed another two minute minor penalty for head contact and the accompanying ten minute misconduct penalty. This would have brought Li to three total penalties in the game. Israfilbek engages and pushes back against Li and should have been assessed a two minute minor penalty for roughing. This would have been his third penalty of the game.
There were no punches thrown and the skirmish broke up before the referees were able to skater over to the corner. As the students were skating away, Li slashes Israfilbek in the mid-section which should have been called a minor penalty for slashing and his fourth penalty of the game. The fourth penalty comes with an automatic game misconduct penalty and a one game suspension.
As the students are taken to the penalty box, Sawyer acts in an unsportsmanlike manner toward Israfilbek by screaming at him and fake motioning to attack Israfilbek. Sawyer should have received a two minute minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. This would have been his third penalty of the game. The referees should have added a ten minute misconduct penalty for prolonging the incident. The ten minute misconduct penalty would have been Sawyer’s fourth penalty of the game. The fourth penalty comes with the automatic game misconduct penalty and a one game suspension. He was not actively involved in the scrum and thus certainly should not be assessed a fighting major.
In response to Sawyer’s behavior Israfilbek cross checks Sawyer in the chest. Thus, he should have earned his fourth penalty of the game. The fourth penalty comes with the automatic game misconduct penalty and a one game suspension. Since no fight occurred, this should be his only supplemental discipline—a one game suspension for incurring four penalties during a game.
The senior official is quite animated at the game’s end swinging his arms wildly and yelling for the final two seconds to be run off the clock. He had been emotionally involved the entire third period beginning with his unprovoked yelling at the Upper Montgomery bench. The Montgomery Hockey Conference chief of discipline, Mark Sangarese, will need to review video of the incident to determine if the actions of any student constitute a fight and an even longer suspension. In order for a fight to occur, punches must be thrown, not pushes or shoves. Neither the Upper Montgomery program nor the Churchill program were pleased with how the game ended and the behavior of their student athletes.
The Lightning did emerge victorious and advanced to the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity semifinals where they will face top seeded Wootton. The early season matchup between the two teams was a very tight exciting game. After playing each other to a 2-2 tie in regulation, the game moved to overtime where the Patriots scored off an end to end rush to prevail 3-2 over the Lightning. The semifinal game should be another thrilling contest as many in the county believe that the Patriots are the best junior varsity team and Upper Montgomery is the second best junior varsity team in the county.
Game Notes:
- Shots on goal were fairly even for the game with Churchill registering 25 shots on goal and Upper Montgomery countering with 22.
- The Lightning scored more than two goals in a playoff game for the first time in three years since the semifinal playoff game against Rockville / Magruder.
- Upper Montgomery sophomore forward Aiden Zheng scored two goals to take over the team lead in goals with eight.
- Lightning sophomore center Jackson Schickler scored his first career high school goal staking the Lightning to its early lead.
- Lightning ninth grade goalie Porter Stutsrim-Lyons stopped 24 of 25 shots increasing his save percentage for the season to .930. He also has a very miniscule 1.87 goals against average.
- Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Max Israfilbek will miss the Wootton game while he serves his supplemental discipline for receiving four penalties in a game.
- Lightning Head Coach Todd Hassett will also miss the Wootton game will serving his supplemental discipline for receiving three unsportsmanlike penalties in a season.
- The senior referee is certain to face USA Hockey discipline for his actions during the game.
- Upper Montgomery’s junior varsity next faces top seeded Wootton in the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity semifinals. Game date and time will be released in the coming days. The two teams matched up earlier in the season with Wootton rallying for a tie in regulation and then winning in overtime to defeat the Lightning 3-2.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Aiden Zheng—Upper Montgomery Forward—2 Goals
Second Star—Porter Stutsrim-Lyons—Upper Montgomery Goalie—Win, 1 GA, 24 Saves, .960 Save Percentage
Third Star—Jake Hudson—Upper Montgomery Forward—1 Goal