The Upper Montgomery Lightning were the talk of the Montgomery Hockey Conference after the initial rounds of both the varsity and the junior varsity playoffs. With two huge upsets, the Lightning’s playoff journeys continued. The varsity advanced to the quarterfinals, where they were matched up against the second-seeded Walter Johnson Wildcats, with the winner earning a spot in the Maryland Student Hockey League state playoffs. The junior varsity advanced to the semifinals, where a matchup against the DC Stars awaited at the end of February.
The Upper Montgomery varsity team struggled through the regular season with a patchwork lineup for almost every game. The team’s leading student athletes missed time due to external travel team conflicts, long-term injuries, and non-hockey related long-term illnesses. The upset of seventh ranked, Division One opponent Whitman pushed the Lightning into an unexpected matchup against the Wildcats. It was the third time in the past four seasons that Upper Montgomery was one game away from the state playoffs. With a full roster available for the game against Walter Johnson, Upper Montgomery was looking to pull off a second consecutive monumental upset while making history, the program’s first bid to the state playoff tournament.
The game began just as Upper Montgomery had planned. Five minutes into the contest, the game was knotted up at zero. Then, off a faceoff win in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone, the Wildcats leading scorer, senior captain Henry Horwell, fired a wrist shot from the slot into the net. Even though trailing early, Upper Montgomery continued with the game plan. Off a turnover in the Lightning defensive zone, Wildcats forward Cameron Fisher scored with less than two minutes remaining in the opening period. Upper Montgomery never recovered, eventually falling by a score of 7-0. The loss ended the high school careers of Upper Montgomery’s four seniors, Jason Woodman, Philip Shkeda, Brady Berkhammer, and Owen Robbins. They will be missed.
The junior varsity entered the semifinal game as the favorites to advance to the junior varsity finals. The DC Stars only made the semifinal contest because the Silver Spring goalie was unavailable at the start of their opening-round playoff game. Unfortunately, the Lightning quickly fell behind three to nothing before the game was four minutes old. Upper Montgomery gallantly responded, cutting the margin to one over the next few minutes of action. The second period saw each team trade goals twice, setting the stage for a wild third period with the Stars holding on to a 5-4 lead.
Two DC Stars goals expanded their lead to 7-4 before the Lightning brought the game back to a one goal margin once again with six and a half minutes to play. Upper Montgomery threatened over the final minutes of action, including late in the game with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, but the team was unsuccessful in tying the game. At the conclusion of the back and forth game, the Lightning student athletes felt as if they had let a golden opportunity slip by. It was the second straight season that the Lightning junior varsity had advanced to the semifinals of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs before losing a very close game.
#Looking Ahead, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!