The Upper Montgomery Lightning’s loss to BCC in the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs delegated the team into the Montgomery Hockey Conference season ending varsity tournament. For the third time this season the Lightning eased past the Northwest / Quince Orchard Jaguars in the quarterfinals. The final score of 8-4, was not indicative of how lopsided the game was. Northwest / Quince Orchard scored two goals in garbage time at the end of the game to make the score look more respectable. Upper Montgomery charged out to a 6-1 lead after two periods of play outshooting the Jaguars badly in building its insurmountable lead.
With the victory, Upper Montgomery advanced to the semifinals of the tournament. It was a very good win for the Lightning who played without their leading scorer in senior center Henry Honacki (15GP, 12G, 7A) and their leading defensive scorer junior defender Brady Berkhammer (15GP, 4G, 15A). The Lightning did see the return of sophomore goalie Ilan Shterenberg who missed the BCC playoff game with an illness. It was the third straight year that the Lightning have advanced into the varsity tournament semifinals. Last year’s varsity tournament victory was the most impactful championship won in the history of the Upper Montgomery program. The Lightning could not have been more pleased to discover that they matched up against the Blair Blazers in the semifinals. The consensus opinion was that Blair was the best possible matchup for Upper Montgomery. The other semifinal game featured perennial powerhouse Churchill hosting the Rockville / Magruder Rams.
Unfortunately, the Blair Blazers defeated Upper Montgomery for the first time in three seasons abruptly ending the Lightning’s 2024 – 2025 varsity hockey season. Blair sophomore forward Mason Boucher scored 19 seconds into overtime to send the Blazers into the Montgomery Hockey Conference Varsity Tournament championship game.
The abrupt loss sent Upper Montgomery into the offseason needing to digest how to take the next steps to regularly defeat the top five or six teams in the county. Even though the Lightning have advanced up the county rankings over the past few seasons, there is still a sizeable amount of work to be done to qualify for the Maryland Student Hockey League state playoffs. Entering its 17th season of existence next year, the Lightning have never qualified for the state playoffs. Upper Montgomery finished as high as fifth in the county while winning the varsity tournament championship after last season.
It will be a long offseason where the Upper Montgomery coaching staff will need to evaluate each student athlete’s strengths and weaknesses to come up with a style of play that permits the team to succeed against the more talented teams in the county. Each year is another opportunity for the program to end its two long streaks left to demolish, never having beaten Churchill and never having qualified for the Maryland Student Hockey League state playoffs. It will now be up to the 2025 – 2026 squad to make history.
#UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!