The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity played an outstanding game late Friday night against top seeded Wootton in the semifinals of the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoffs. It was an excellent high school hockey game between the top two junior varsity squads in the county. Upper Montgomery controlled the flow and pace of the game against the high flying Patriots holding a 1-0 lead entering the third period. At that point, the effects of playing back to back games became too large of an impediment for Upper Montgomery. Wootton stormed back aided by two early third period powerplay goals to defeat the Lightning 3-1 advancing to the junior varsity championship game against BCC. Wootton is expected to prevail easily against the Barons and take home their first junior varsity title. The loss ends the season for Upper Montgomery completing the year with a 5-3-2 record.
Entering the contest Upper Montgomery knew that the best way to stifle the Patriots was to play a smothering defensive system that prevented Wootton from getting into their preferred skating game. At times, the Lightning created a ring around the interior of the defensive zone content to let Wootton keep possession of the puck on the exterior. The Patriots were forced to fire long range shots on Upper Montgomery ninth grade goalie Porter Stutsrim-Lyons. When Upper Montgomery did possess the puck, the team sent the puck out to neutral ice or deep into the Patriots defensive zone with multiple students scrambling to the bench for a line change. Upper Montgomery’s plan was to frustrate the Patriots while capitalizing on counter attack rushes up ice. The Lightning skaters blocked shot after shot. The defense cleared rebounds out of harm’s way. Upper Montgomery goaltender Stutsrim-Lyons came through with an outstanding performance after being unexpectedly thrust into playing in back to back games. He had to start the varsity playoff game when the Lightning’s starting varsity goalie, sophomore Ilan Shterenberg came down ill forcing Stutsrim-Lyons into playing both games.
The beginning of the game was unsettling. After the Upper Montgomery varsity game ran late due to a zamboni malfunction, the student athletes that were also playing in the junior varsity game hustled from Rockville Ice Arena over to Cabin John Ice Rink. The Lightning were forced to use their time out at the beginning of the game to allow Stutsrim-Lyons time to complete gearing up. Once game action commenced, the Lightning executed the game plan to a T. Defense, defense, defense, more defense, and then even more defense. Wootton was unable to solve Stutsrim-Lyons. The Lightning rolled forward lines and defensive pairings in an attempt to keep the students playing in their second game of the night as fresh and rested as possible.
Six minutes into the game, Upper Montgomery earned the first powerplay of the night when Wootton’s top line center sophomore Nathan Geeng was called for an interference penalty. While Upper Montgomery did not score or even threaten offensively, it was two more minutes of denying Wootton the ability to play to their core strength, transition offense. After Upper Montgomery’s powerplay fizzled, Lightning sophomore forward Jake Hudson took his first penalty of the season. He was whistled for a minor penalty for hooking. Wootton pressured the entire two minutes in the offensive zone, but could not penetrate Upper Montgomery’s packed in penalty kill. When shots did get through, Stutsrim-Lyons was there to shut the door.
As Wootton’s extra skater advantage concluded unsuccessfully, the Lightning began to exude confidence at keeping Wootton off the scoreboard for more than ten minutes. Upper Montgomery had a burst offensively which ultimately gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead. Upper Montgomery sophomore defender Miles Wendland had the puck at his own defensive blue line along the left wing boards. He sent a diagonal pass which Hudson received at the right wing boards standing at the center red line. Hudson skated the puck into the Wootton defensive zone. He was immediately pressured by the Wootton defense. While falling down, Hudson swept the puck around the net into the left corner. The puck hit the net and was gathered in by the Wootton defense.
The clearing attempt was kept in at the left point by Wendland. His shot on goal was an easy pad save for Wootton’s sophomore goalie Kevin Yu, with the puck directed into the left corner. Lightning ninth grade forward, Luke Hudson, Jake’s brother, retrieved the puck and sent it our front to fellow ninth grade forward Siddy Bhasin. Bhasin’s first shot attempt was blocked by the Wootton defense. His second shot was saved by Yu with the puck bouncing back to Bhasin. The Upper Montgomery forward then took the puck around the back of the net. Moving from left to right he pivoted out from behind the goal line extended and stuffed a backhand wraparound shot between Yu’s left skate and the near goal post. Upper Montgomery had all three of its first period shots in quick succession concluding with Bhasin’s sixth goal of the season.
With two minutes remaining in the opening period Upper Montgomery now had a lead to protect. Then came more penalties. First, Luke Hudson took an interference penalty inside of a minute remaining in the first period. Twenty seconds later Wendland was called for a roughing penalty for a great check in the corner. Definitely not a penalty. The Lightning were down two skaters for a minute and forty seconds bridging the first and second periods. Upper Montgomery’s penalty killers, Jake Hudson, Aiden Zheng, AJ Marks, Patrick Sell, and Cole Howerton did an amazing job getting through both the end of the opening period and the beginning of the second period without giving up a goal. Stutsrim-Lyons did a heck of a job as well maintaining his focus and fighting off shot after shot.
Wootton controlled the territorial advantage throughout the second period as well. Although shots were more even, fourteen for Wootton and nine for Upper Montgomery, several of the Lightning’s shots were defensive zone clears or red line dump ins that happened to be on goal forcing Yu to push the puck aside. Stutsrim-Lyons continued making saves. Upper Montgomery continued defending all over the ice. Wootton kept pressing all while the score remained 1-0 Upper Montgomery as the time passed eleven o’clock in the evening. With just over a minute remaining in the second period, Lightning senior defender and team captain Cole Howerton received a minor penalty for high sticking.
Back to the penalty kill for Upper Montgomery. The team’s passive approach seemed to confuse the Patriots. Rather than work into the interior of the defense, Wootton settled for long range shots or tried to force opportunities that were not available. This allowed Stutsrim-Lyons to swallow shots with no rebounds, Upper Montgomery penalty killers to block shots, Wootton shots flew past the net wide, and the Lightning kept clearing the defensive zone. At the end of two periods of play the Lightning were ahead needing to just hold on for the final fifteen minutes of action. Shots on goal through two periods of play favored Wootton 26-12.
The game was about to enter the danger zone for the Lightning. Could the team keep playing with the same pace and intensity with so many of the students already having played five periods of hockey in the past three hours with travel in between the games. Upper Montgomery was able to make it through the last forty five seconds of Wootton’s fourth powerplay. Fourteen minutes remained…
On the next shift after Howerton returned to the ice surface, Bhasin was issued a slashing penalty for hacking an onrushing Wootton forward. The Lightning admirably killed off the first minute and forty five seconds of the extra attacker advantage. Twelve minutes remained… As Bhasin was getting ready to return from the penalty box, Wootton struck to even the game at one. From a faceoff in the left faceoff circle in the offensive zone, Wootton won the draw and maintained puck possession. Patriots Defender Isaac Greene took the puck to the left corner continuing on around the net from left to right. His shot from the lower right faceoff circle was blocked. The puck ricocheted to the left wing boards. Wootton forward Brendan Lau sent the puck deep into the left corner for Geeng. Geeng sent the puck back to the left point to Greene who had returned to his regular defensive position. Greene’s wrist shot along the ice was saved by Stutsrim-Lyons’s right leg pad. Stutsrim-Lyons steered the rebound back into the left corner. The puck was gathered in by Geeng who skated towards the net drawing the Lightning defensive coverage. Geeng sent a cross ice pass to Wootton forward Drew Kronforst. With Upper Montgomery’s far side forward out of position, Kronforst had time to stop the puck before he lifted a wrist shot high over the Lightning netminder as Stutsrim-Lyons was coming over to face up to the shot. It was Kronforst’s third goal of the season tying up the game with twelve minutes remaining.
The Lightning made it through only twenty seconds before Luke Hudson was called for a roughing penalty. After an initial penalty call made against Wootton, Hudson’s penalty was the sixth consecutive call against Upper Montgomery. The Upper Montgomery coaching staff let the referees hear about the discrepancy in penalties and their thoughts on how weak some of the calls were. Even so, the Lightning were back on the penalty kill yet again. As the second minute of the powerplay got underway, Wootton scored its second powerplay goal in succession to jump into the lead.
A Wootton zone entry dump in was stopped by Stutsrim-Lyons in the left faceoff circle. Kronforst picked up the puck dropping it off the left wing boards back to Geeng who was just entering the offensive zone. Geeng skated to the interior of the left faceoff circle where his snap shot was blocked. The puck caromed over to Lau now covering at the left point. Lau moved around the Upper Montgomery forward coming out to meet him at the point. With inside positioning, Lau traveled to the left faceoff circle where he sent a heavy wrist shot short side high over Stutsrim-Lyons’s right shoulder. With ten minutes left in regulation time, Lau’s seventh goal of the season had put the Patriots on top. Curiously and magically, the stern discussion by the Upper Montgomery coaching staff resulted in no more penalties called against Upper Montgomery for the rest of the game. Humph!
Upper Montgomery had ten minutes to find the equalizer. The team responded by becoming much more offensive. The defenders were instructed to join the rush to try and outnumber the Patriots getting back on defense. The change in strategy once again caught the Patriots by surprise as Upper Montgomery had ten shots on goal in the third period alone. The Wootton powerplays combined with Upper Montgomery taking risks offensively late in the third period resulted in sixteen shot on goal fired against Stutsrim-Lyons. The Lightning were able to generate several good offensive chances over the final ten minutes of the game. Several quality looks were fired wide of the net. A couple hit Yu directly in the center of his chest protector. The tired Lightning gave everything they had with sophomore forward Jackson Schickler firing himself head first diving across the ice to block shots when Wootton countered the Lightning’s offensive push.
With three and a half minutes left in regulation Wootton tallied an insurance goal to put the Lightning behind the eight ball. Wootton entered the Upper Montgomery defensive zone down the left side of the ice. Lau left a drop pass for Geeng at the left faceoff circle. Geeng stepped into a slap shot that sizzled wide of the net to the far side. Lau briefly retrieved the puck in the right corner before he was relieved of the puck by Wendland. Wendland flipped the puck to an Upper Montgomery forward on the right wing boards. Unfortunately, that Upper Montgomery forward fanned on the defensive zone clearing attempt. Geeng shoveled the puck forward to Wootton forward Jayden Ahn. From the low slot, Ahn sent a spinning backhand shot that nestled just inside the left post past Stutsrim-Lyons’s extended right leg for his fifth goal of the season.
With a two goal lead and three and a half minutes remaining, Wootton sat back in a defensive shell. The Patriots were content to flip the puck back to center ice and make the Lightning fight just to gain entry into the offensive zone. The exhausted Upper Montgomery student athletes made a strong effort to try and find another goal, but just simply ran out of gas and time. Upper Montgomery played valiantly. For the first 33 minutes of the game the young Lightning executed the game plan flawlessly. In the later rounds of the playoffs all of the teams are talented. The Lightning gave everything they had pushing Wootton close to the edge before coming up a smidge short of returning to the junior varsity championship game for the first time since 2021 – 2022.
Game Notes:
- Shots on goal were heavily weighted in favor of Wootton 42-22. The Patriots outshot Upper Montgomery twelve to three in the first period in which they were trailing 1-0.
- Lightning ninth grade goalie Porter Stutsrim-Lyons stopped 39 of 42 shots directly after stopping 40 of 43 shots in the Upper Montgomery varsity playoff game played prior to the junior varsity playoff game. It was a combined .929 save percentage with four of the six goals scored against on the opposition’s powerplays.
- Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Max Israfilbek missed the Wootton game serving his supplemental discipline for receiving four penalties in a game against Churchill in last week’s junior varsity quarterfinal matchup.
- Lightning Head Coach Todd Hassett missed the Wootton game serving his supplemental discipline suspension for receiving three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in a season.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Porter Stutsrim-Lyons—Upper Montgomery Goalie—39 saves, .928 Save Percentage
Second Star—Nathan Geeng—Wootton Center—3 Assists
Third Star—Drew Kronforst—Wootton Forward—1 Goal, 1 Assist