The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity returns to action on Sunday, December 11th facing off against Churchill. Game time is 1:30 pm at Laurel Ice Gardens. For Upper Montgomery, the game marks the first of three straight contests against the bottom three teams in the Montgomery Hockey Conference. The team will need to duplicate last season’s three game win streak to end the season which catapulted the team toward last season’s junior varsity championship. This year’s team needs to build momentum heading into the junior varsity playoffs.
With a few more wins, the Lightning can avoid the junior varsity playoff play-in games and solidify a mid-range seeding in the playoff tournament. The Lightning have played three straight close games where the opposition needed to score into the empty net to finish off the game. Those three games were against the top three teams in the league. A win over Churchill would certainly be a confidence boost.
Quite simply, Upper Montgomery needs to score more and generate more offensive chances. The team is averaging only two goals per game. The Lightning have scored more than two goals in only one game this season. Henry Honacki has scored four of the team’s twelve goals on the season. He has been by far the best skater on the ice for the Lightning junior varsity. No other student athlete has more than one goal.
TJ Gottesman leads the team with seven points on one goal and six assists and he has points in each game he has played this season. Stephen Shkeda has one goal and four assists in five games. Several other experienced members of the team are producing well behind last season’s scoring pace and that is what is holding back the team. The game against Churchill is the game to get right as the Bulldogs have given up 38 goals in four games, an average of 9.5 goals per game.
In goal, Landon Bernard will be looking to build off of his best performance of the season. Earlier this week he played superb in the junior varsity’s loss to top ranked Walter Johnson, stopping 37 of 39 shots and almost single handedly stealing a win for the Lightning. He stopped five breakaways throughout the game. The only two goals he gave up were also on breakaway chances. Bernard has been solid in net this season and provides the Lightning with a decided advantage in goal. Churchill will counter with Cameron Shure. Shure will be looking to keep Churchill in the game and stop the Bulldogs four game losing streak where Churchill’s closest loss was by six goals.
Upper Montgomery needs to dominate the Bulldogs. The student athletes who have struggled on the offensive end or in the defensive zone need to play well and take confidence into next week’s game. The Lightning are the better team. They need to demonstrate that fight from the opening faceoff and not play down to Churchill’s level.