Another week, another pivotal game for the Upper Montgomery Lightning. In defeating the BCC Barons in the season opener for both squads, the Lightning earned the program’s first ever victory over the perennial Montgomery County powerhouse program. Friday night the Lightning earned another hard fought victory over the Barons to sweep the season series. The game played out just as predicted. It was a very heavy game with lots of contact and hard hits. There was very little room to maneuver around the ice. Stellar goaltending kept the game low scoring. Behind a second consecutive two goal game from Upper Montgomery senior center Henry Honacki, the Lightning left the ice exhausted but in a celebratory mood.
The 3-2 triumph increased Upper Montgomery’s record on the season to 5-2-1 in conference play and 5-3-1 overall. With bottom feeder Northwest / Quince Orchard up next after winter break, the Lightning have an ideal opportunity to move four games over .500 in conference play. Upper Montgomery has likely already clinched a top eight seed in the season ending Montgomery Hockey Conference post season playoff tournament. This is key as the home team has the last line change and is able to match up forward lines and defensive pairings against their opening round playoff opponent. It was a well earned victory for the Lightning in light of how the game started.
On the opening shift of the game BCC’s leading scorer Leo Alley-Strocher scored an unassisted goal to punch Upper Montgomery right in the nose thirty seconds into the game. A BCC zone entry was stopped by the Upper Montgomery defense. The puck was sent around the back of the net to the right corner. An attempted defensive zone clear by the Lightning defense banking the puck off the side boards was blocked by the Barons. The puck caromed into the center of the right faceoff circle. Without his stick, Honacki attempted to kick the puck back to the Upper Montgomery defense. He missed the puck with Alley-Strocher standing right there. Alley-Strocher was thus in alone in front of the net. He first stickhandled around Lightning sophomore goaltender Ilan Shterenberg and then lifted a backhander to the far side of the net past Shterenberg’s goalie stick and blocker.
The early BCC goal did not deter the Lightning. Upper Montgomery’s response was excellent. The Lightning went on to outshoot the Barons by a lopsided nineteen to four margin over the opening fifteen minutes of action. Only Barons senior goalie Tycho Narrod-Malcolm kept BCC from getting blown out of the rink making superior save after superior save to continuously thwart the Lightning. It was a testament to Upper Montgomery’s student athletes that they were not deterred by how well Narrod-Malcolm was playing. The Lightning kept attacking and swarming inside the BCC defensive zone.
Four minutes after Alley-Strocher’s goal, Upper Montgomery found the tying score. The Barons defense had control of the puck inside the BCC defensive zone. Lightning junior center and team captain Owen Robbins stick checked the puck. The puck slid over to the other Barons defender. Honacki checked the Barons defender separating the skater from the puck. Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Siddy Bhasin took possession of the loose puck. From the bottom of the left faceoff circle Bhasin made an unselfish pass over to Honakci in the crease. The Lightning’s senior center slammed the puck past Narrod-Malcolm’s glove into the open side of the net for his eighth goal of the season.
The rest of the period was played in the BCC defensive zone. There was enormous pressure put on the Narrod-Malcolm who stood tall in net. There was also substantial play along the boards and in the corners with both teams playing a physical rough and tumble style of game. Eventually, the first period came to a close with the score tied at one. BCC immensely needed the intermission break as they looked to recover and change the complexion of the game.
It would take some time as just over a minute into the second period BCC defender Benjamin Lyons was called for a tripping penalty. The Lightning powerplay had been smoking hot of late but was unable to capitalize this time as Narrod-Malcolm kept the puck out of the net. The rough and tumble play continued with each team feeling as if the referees missed a call or two. But, BCC was able to begin to convert defensive zone exits into offensive opportunities. Play in the second period was much more even with each team firing ten shots on goal. After the early goal against, Shterenberg settled in and stopped the next thirteen shots he faced through two periods of play.
With three and a half minutes remaining in the middle period Upper Montgomery jumped out to their first lead of the game. From a faceoff in the defensive zone to the left of Shterenberg, the draw was won back to Lightning junior defender Brady Berkhammer in the right corner. Berkhammer took the puck behind his net and then sent an outlet pass to Robbins in the neutral zone. Robbins’ attempted backhand pass hit a BCC defender’s skate and came right back to him. He then entered the offensive zone on a two on two rush with Bhasin. Robbins went wide and sent a backhand pass across the ice which was just out of reach of the BCC defense. Bhasin skated into the pass. From the inside edge in the lower part of the right faceoff circle he fired a wrist shot on goal. The puck went seven hole between Narrod-Malcolm’s body and blocker to the far side of the net. It was Bhasin’s first career varsity goal.
With a minute remaining in the middle period Lightning senior defender Cole Howerton was whistled for a tripping penalty. Upper Montgomery successfully killed off the second period portion of BCC’s extra skater advantage to preserve its one goal lead entering the third period.
BCC played with much more urgency in the third period. The wrap around portion of Howerton’s penalty saw BCC begin to generate more offensive chances and penetrate to the interior of the Upper Montgomery penalty kill. Shterenberg made several strong saves to keep the Barons off the scoreboard. BCC was back on the powerplay once again with ten minutes remaining in regulation when Robbins was called for cross checking in front of the Barons goal. It was a terrible call as Robbins leaned on a smaller skater who fell down. Upper Montgomery scrambled through the second Barons’ powerplay but with Sheterenberg making several more point blank saves as part of his fifteen in the period BCC remained trailing 2-1.
With five minutes remaining in the game, Lyons was assessed his second penalty of the night. It was another poor officiating call by the same official that called Robbins penalty five minutes prior. Unlike BCC, the Lightning took advantage of Lyons’ slashing penalty to extend the lead to 3-1. Off of a faceoff in the right faceoff circle in the BCC defensive zone the Barons won the draw. However, Lightning sophomore forward Aiden Zheng outraced the Barons defense to the puck in the right corner. Zheng sent a backhand pass off one of the BCC defenders to Honacki in the slot. Honacki’s backhand shot went wide of the net far side and into the left corner. Lightning junior forward Philip Shkeda won the race to the puck along the left wing side wall. He dropped the puck back to Berkhammer at the left point. Berkhammer sent a long range wrist shot at the net while falling away from the goal. Berkhammer’s shot was deflected by Honacki on net. Narrod-Malcolm made the pad save. Honacki and Zheng banged away at the rebound. The puck fired off Narrod-Malcolm’s pads up the slot to Shkeda. Shkeda faked a shot, hesitated, and made a backhand pass down to Honacki at the left post. Honacki controlled the pass and quickly fired over Narrod-Malcolm’s right leg pad under his blocker for the powerplay goal. It was his team leading fourth powerplay goal and ninth goal of the season.
With a two goal deficit, BCC pulled Narrod-Malcolm for an extra skater extremely early with 3:20 left in the game. Upper Montgomery played strong defense over the next minute. An icing call brought the faceoff back into the Upper Montgomery defensive zone in the left faceoff circle. Upper Montgomery won the ensuing faceoff. Poor communication by the Upper Montgomery defenders coupled with a poor defensive zone clear sent the puck to Barons forward Kiran Maltby. His bad angle shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle was easily saved by Shterenberg’s blocker. Howerton cleared the puck out of the crease. Maltby picked up the loose puck in the left corner and took the puck around the back of the net from left to right. His centering pass to the slot was lodged in a tangle of bodies and skates in front of Shterenberg. The puck squirted out of the pile of skaters to BCC forward Peter Lanpher at the back left goal post. Lanpher’s forehand shot to the backside of the net trickled through Shterenberg who was coming across the net and just over the goal line.
With 2:27 remaining in the game Upper Montgomery was ahead by just one, 3-2. Five seconds after the puck drop at center ice, Narrod-Malcolm was back on the bench in favor of the extra skater. The Upper Montgomery coaches kept the same set of skaters on the ice to try and prevent BCC from tying up the game. Robbins, Berkhammer, Zheng, Honacki, and ninth grade defender Lillian Robbins gutted through the remainder of the game fighting in the corners and along the boards to clear the puck back to center ice or into the Barons end of the ice. As the puck came to center ice one final time with under five seconds remaining in the game, the Lightning had secured a second consecutive victory over BCC.
The Lightning will look to carry the momentum from this important victory into the final four regular season conference games. With Northwest / Quince Orchard the first game after winter break, the Lightning have an opportunity to continue to climb up the conference standings. Upper Montgomery can finish with its best mark in conference play since the 2018 – 2019 season when the team only played the other teams in the lower division of the Montgomery Hockey Conference. Two wins over the final four conference games likely clinches the all important sixth seed in the upcoming post season playoffs. Finishing sixth would tie last season’s best ever finish in program history.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery outshot the Barons 39-30 including a huge nineteen to four margin in the opening period.
- Lightning senior center Henry Honacki scored two goals for the second consecutive game. He also scored the game winning powerplay goal in each of the last two games.
- Honacki now leads the Lightning with nine goals.
- The six on five pulled goalie goal scored by BCC was the third such pulled goalie goal scored by the Lightning’s opposition in nine games. The Lightning won two of the games and tied the third.
- Upper Montgomery scored on the powerplay again. The team is now seven for eighteen (38.9%) on the season with the extra skater. Last season, Upper Montgomery scored all of seven powerplay goals the entire year.
- Upper Montgomery swept the season series from the Barons. It is the first season in its sixteen years of existence that Upper Montgomery has defeated BCC.
- The only Montgomery County high school program that the Lightning have never beaten is the Churchill Bulldogs.
- Upper Montgomery returns to action after the winter break with the team’s annual senior night celebration. The Lightning will honor its seven seniors before the team takes on last place Northwest / Quince Orchard. Faceoff is at 8:10 pm on Friday, January 3rd at Rockville Ice Arena.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Tycho Narrod-Malcolm—BCC Goalie—36 Saves, .923 Save Percentage
Second Star—Henry Honacki—Upper Montgomery Center—2 Goals Including Game Winning PPG
Third Star—Ilan Shterenberg–Upper Montgomery Goalie—Win, 2 Goals Against, 28 Saves, .933 Save Percentage