The Upper Montgomery Lightning came into Friday’s regular season conference finale looking to demonstrate that the squad was ready to face tough competition in the upcoming Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. The Whitman Vikings illustrated very clearly that the Lightning have a lot of work to do by easily steamrolling past Upper Montgomery 8-0. The game was not competitive right from the opening faceoff. It was Upper Montgomery’s worst performance of the season. The lone bright spot for the Lightning was ninth grade backup goalie Porter Stutrsim-Lyons’ showing in the third period playing during mop up time.
Right from the opening faceoff the Lightning’s top forward line strayed from the game plan. Over the past three seasons, every game that Upper Montgomery has won against Whitman has been tight checking, low scoring, and devoid of offensive chances (1-0, 2-1, 3-2). When the Lightning have lost to Whitman it is because Upper Montgomery attempted to go toe to toe with the Vikings playing up and down the ice trading offensive chances. On Friday night, at the end of the opening shift of the game, Whitman rushed up ice into the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. A shot from the right faceoff circle was stopped by Shterenberg. The rebound was cleared to the right wing side boards. Whitman 18U AA senior center Charlie Ingis picked up the puck and curled back to the right point. Ingis the skated downhill to the top of the right faceoff circle unimpeded. As the Lightning defenders converged on him, Ingis swung the puck over to the left faceoff circle where he found a wide open Trevor Fay, another of the Vikings 18U AA senior forwards. Fay had time to load up a snap shot and he beat Shterenberg short side past his blocker for his eighth goal of the season.
The second shift of the game was not much better. Whitman continued to pressure in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. Lightning sophomore defender Miles Wendland took a holding penalty putting the Vikings on the powerplay. Thirty seconds later, Ingis scored his 24th goal of the season. The rout was on. Whitman 18U AA senior defender Zachary Kraus sent an outlet pass to Ingis down the right wing. Ingis carried the puck into the offensive zone where he pulled up at the right faceoff circle. He dropped the puck back to the center point along the blue line to Kraus who followed the play into the offensive zone. Kraus drifted left pulling the defense with him before he returned the puck to Ingis in the right faceoff circle. Ingis let loose with a wicked wrist shot that went up over Shterenberg’s right shoulder into the top left corner of the net. Whitman had a 2-0 lead less than two minutes into the contest.
Upper Montgomery faired a bit better over the next several minutes of the game as Whitman played some of their depth forward lines and defensive pairing. Upper Montgomery contained play better along with Shterenberg making saves on several long range shots. As the clock moved under ten minutes remaining in the opening period, Upper Montgomery cleared the puck to center ice. Whitman forward Lucas Giesecke dropped the puck back to senior defender Mark Buckley. Buckley sent the puck up the left wing boards to Lightning killer 18U AA senior forward, Nicholas Huguely. At the blue line entering the offensive zone Huguely tapped a pass to 18U AA senior defender Morrison Cohen who had jumped up into the rush. Cohen dumped the puck into the left corner where Giesecke outraced an Upper Montgomery defender to reach the puck. Giesecke touched the puck as he was falling to the ice. Huguely reversed direction back to the corner and passed the puck to Fay in the middle of the slot. Fay turned back to the left point deking around a Lightning forward. He sent a wrist shot through traffic from the top of the left faceoff circle low past Shterenberg. It was Fay’s second goal of the night and his ninth of the season. The effort from several Upper Montgomery skaters on the scoring sequence was not very good.
A minute later, Upper Montgomery went to the powerplay when Giesecke was called for an interference penalty. Whitman had an easy time of it on the penalty kill as Upper Montgomery had trouble accessing the offensive zone with puck possession. Shterenberg made a really good save on Ingis on a shorthanded break in. As the Lightning powerplay was ending, senior defender Cole Howerton took an interference penalty of his own. Eight seconds later while the teams were skating four on four, Kraus tallied to bring the score to 4-0. Off of a faceoff from the right faceoff circle in the offensive zone, Ingis won the draw back to Huguely at the top of the right faceoff circle. Huguely left the puck for Kraus at the right point. Kraus skated down the right wing boards into the right faceoff circle. He went wide to the outside past the Upper Montgomery defender and cut to the net all alone. He shifted the puck from his backhand to his forehand and put the puck past Shterenberg for his eighth goal of the season.
The goal was scored so quickly that Whitman went immediately to the powerplay. Sensing that the game was getting out of hand, the Whitman coaching staff started the powerplay using skaters who had not yet played very much. Upper Montgomery was able to kill off the penalty to Howerton and escape the balance of the period without giving up any more goals. The teams entered the first intermission with Whitman totally in control up 4-0 having outshot the Lightning by a seventeen to three margin.
The Lightning were admonished by the coaching staff during intermission for straying from the defensive game plan and giving a lacksidasical effort. Upper Montgomery played the first six minutes of the second period as instructed and it paid off. Lightning sophomore forward Aiden Zheng was able to get free behind the pressing Whitman defense forcing Cohen to slash him. While it did not look like a penalty to anyone in the rink, the closest referee called a penalty and awarded Zheng a penalty shot. Zheng came in alone on Whitman sophomore goalie Alexander Minkoff, who was given a surprise start against Upper Montgomery. Zheng elected to shoot from the low slot area. Minkoff was able to make the save. It was a morale boost for the young goalie as everyone had expected 18U AA senior Ryan Graf to start in his final regular season high school conference game.
The penalty shot save seemed to once again energize the Vikings. On the very next shift, Giesecke scored to increase Whitman’s lead to 5-0. In the offensive zone the puck was dug our of the corner by Huguely. He sent the puck back to the left point to Whitman sophomore defender Stephen Mah. Mah sent the puck to his right along the blue line to his defensive partner, Kraus. Kraus stepped in from the right point and fired a wrist shot at Shterenberg. Shterenberg made the initial save with the puck popping up over him. Giesecke pushed the puck the final few feet into the open goal for his fourth goal of the season.
A minute and a half after Giesecke’s goal, Whitman was called for a too many skaters on the ice penalty. Rather than Upper Montgomery taking advantage of the powerplay, the team gave up its first shorthanded goal of the season as Whitman increased its lead to 6-0. Upper Montgomery was under so much pressure in its defensive zone, the team just cleared the defensive end by throwing the puck out to neutral ice. Huguely chased down the puck and curled up ice back toward the offensive zone. He skated through the middle of the ice before making a backhand pass to Cohen cutting down the left side of the ice. Cohen got into the offensive zone and cut to the middle of the slot. Arriving into traffic in the slot, he dished the puck off to Kraus who was on the right side moving into the right faceoff circle. Kraus’ return pass / shot towards the net was deflected by Cohen over Shterenberg as the goalie was moving forward to poke check the puck away. It was Cohen’s ninth goal of the season. Mercifully, the game entered running clock.
A minute later Kraus had his ninth goal of the season and the game was getting laughable with the Vikings leading 7-0. An Upper Montgomery clearing attempt off the glass in the defensive zone was intercepted by Fay. He made a touch pass to Kraus at the point. Kraus took the puck down the left wing boards into the left corner. He made a backhand pass towards the slot that deflected off the nearest Lightning defender though Shterenberg’s five hole.
Another minute later and the score became 8-0 when little used Whitman forward Hugh Golub scored to complete a five and a half minute barrage of four Vikings goals. The puck was kept in the Upper Montgomery offensive zone at the blue line by Lightning ninth grade defender Matthew Rivera. His pass was intercepted by Whitman sophomore forward Grace Luo. She skated down the right wing through the neutral zone into the offensive third of the ice. Entering the right faceoff circle she made a pass to the slot that found Mah. Mah left a drop pass for Golub who popped the puck over Shterenberg for his third goal of the season.
For some reason, at the end of the second period with an 8-0 lead Fay mouthed off to the officials. He was assessed a two minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. After being severely outshot once again, seventeen to four in the second period, the Lightning would begin the third period with the extra skater. During the second intermission the Upper Montgomery coaching staff chose to save Shterenberg and rest him for the third period. This decision was made for three reasons; to rest Shterenberg who had already faced 34 shots in two periods of play, to save Shterenberg as the team in front of him was playing very, very poorly, and then to give ninth grade backup netminder Porter Stustrim-Lyons some varsity game action experience.
The third period was played entirely with running clock. Upper Montgomery failed to score on the period opening powerplay. Whitman pulled back and played their depth skaters more frequently. Still, Stutsrim-Lyons made some incredible saves and other excellent saves to keep the Vikings at bay. In the third period he stopped all thirteen shots he faced while Upper Montgomery countered with two for an entire game total of just nine shots, one more than the number of goals Whitman scored.
The loss locks Upper Montgomery into the seventh slot in the county rankings and a tougher path in the upcoming post season playoffs. First round matchups will be announced early next week with the winner of the opening round game facing highly rated Walter Johnson in the quarterfinals. The Lightning’s challenging conclusion to the regular season continues with a non-conference afternoon game next Wednesday against the state’s top ranked team, Oakdale.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery was badly outshot by Whitman 47-9. The Vikings dominated each period.
- It was the second time the Lightning have been shutout this season.
- Upper Montgomery junior defender Brady Berkhammer’s five game points streak ended.
- Upper Montgomery senior forward Nathan Cassel’s three game goal streak ended.
- The Lightning finished the season with their best mark in conference play (6-5-1) since the 2018 – 2019 season when the team only played the other teams in the lower division of the Montgomery Hockey Conference.
- Whitman defender Zachary Kraus, Whitman center Charlie Ingis, and Upper Montgomery forward Nathan Cassel all play together on the same 18U AA external travel team.
- Upper Montgomery next plays a non-conference game against Oakdale to finish the regular season. Game time on Wednesday afternoon at Rockville Ice Arena is set for 4:40 pm.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star— Zachary Kraus—Whitman Defense—2 Goals, 3 Assists
Second Star—Trevor Fay—Whitman Forward—2 Goals, 1 Assist
Third Star—Charlie Ingis —Whitman Center—1 Goal, 2 Assists