The Upper Montgomery Lightning have begun off-ice workouts in preparation for the 2026 – 2027 high school ice hockey season. The program has a total of 24 student-athletes participating during the upcoming season. The breakdown is five goalies, six defenders, and thirteen forwards. Several students will be varsity-only student-athletes based on their grade in high school and the level of external travel hockey they play. Other students will be junior varsity-only student-athletes. Finally, many student-athletes will play for both the varsity and the junior varsity teams this season.
Similar to last season, the Lightning remain a very young team once again. The program has five seniors, five juniors, nine sophomores, and five ninth graders. The future is bright with several high-end travel eighth- and seventh-graders in the pipeline. This season, the coaches will be heavily focused on working with the students on learning the game of ice hockey, the team coming together as a family, and all students having fun. The team will be very competitive at the junior varsity level and will look to surprise teams at the varsity level.
A defense-first structure is being implemented with completely new systems to give the students the best chance of winning games. The team’s goalies will be instrumental in providing instruction on the ice and giving the team an opportunity to win every game. With the graduation of most of last season’s top scorers, the group is going to have to replace the offensive output as a whole, and not just look to one individual to put the puck in the net.
We are three weeks away from the first on-ice evaluation session. In just one month, the Lightning junior varsity open the season at the end of September. While the weather is still nice outside, it feels like it’s time to get the hockey season started!
#ALL TOGETHER, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!