The Upper Montgomery Lightning begin their playoff march on Friday evening. Game time is 8:00 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. This will be the third meeting of the season between the programs. Until the teams met in mid-October to open the season, Upper Montgomery had never before beaten the Barons. The only time in the prior fifteen seasons that the Lightning were able to take points away from BCC was two seasons ago on Halloween when Upper Montgomery was able to scrounge out a 2-2 tie. That game set the barometer of what the Upper Montgomery program had become as the entire county thought the score was a misprint when it first was published.
This season, both teams have very young rosters with few upperclass students. Upper Montgomery prevailed in the season opener by a score of 4-3 fending off the Barons who scored with their goalie pulled to cut the margin to one. The Lightning then survived the frantic final seconds to claim their first ever victory over BCC. In late December, Upper Montgomery again beat the Barons by one goal, this time 3-2 to complete the season sweep. Lightning senior center and leading scorer Henry Honacki scored the game winning goal on the powerplay with under five minutes remaining in third period. Once again, the Lightning survived a frenetic final few minutes to pull out the win.
Since early January, the programs have been headed in different directions. Upper Montgomery (6-7-1), the seventh seed, has lost four games in a row. The team has given up bunches of goals in each game. Rockville / Magruder scored seven, Churchill scored seven, Whitman scored eight, and Oakdale scored eight times. If the Lightning believe they can beat tenth seeded BCC (4-8) by giving up a bucket full of goals, Upper Montgomery will get run out of the building. The good news is that BCC is somewhat limited offensively, especially against good quality opponents. In addition, Upper Montgomery will need to improve its offensive production. The team has been shutout the past two games, not having scored a goal in their last eight periods of game action. BCC is not going to make it easy for Upper Montgomery. In fact, even though the Barons have lost twice to the Lightning this season and are the lower seeded team, BCC has expressed that they believe they are the better squad showing a distinct lack of respect for the Lightning.
In net for the Lightning will be sophomore 16U AA goalie Ilan Shterenberg. Shterenberg has handled the majority of the goaltending duties this season for Upper Montgomery. He has shined in some games making 49 saves in the Lightning’s 3-1 loss to Wootton early in the season and 44 saves in the overtime victory over the DC Stars. He has been left out to dry far too many times by the skaters in front of him as costly defensive zone turnovers have negatively impacted his personal statistics. His play has been typical for an underclass student athlete moving up from his staring role on the junior varsity last season. Some games have been very good. Other games there are likely goals that he wishes he had another chance at. At the end of the regular season, Shterenberg has a solid save percentage of .874. His goals against average is 5.04 having risen by nearly a goal over the Lightning’s poor play over the last month. The young netminder will need to play a strong game to help Upper Montgomery defeat the Barons for the third time this season.
In goal for Oakdale is expected to be senior Vivienne Boyle. Boyle started the first game of the season against the Lightning. Her goalie partner Tycho Narrod-Malcolm played fantastic in the second game between the teams. It is a little surprising for Boyle to get the starting nod, however, BCC has been alternating netminders all season long. Boyle is 2-7 on the season, with a .791 save percentage and a 5.16 goals against average.
Defensively, junior 16U AA defender Brady Berkhammer has upped his game this season. He has set personal career highs in all offensive categories (14GP, 4G, 14A). He recently had a stretch of scoring eight points in four games, and eleven points in six games before the entire team’s recent offensive struggles. Berkhammer leads the team with fourteen assists. Sophomore defender Miles Wendland has played important minutes against the opposition’s top forward lines. He has accelerated his game from his ninth grade season and scored his first career varsity goal earlier in the month against Churchill. Senior Cole Howerton has stepped into a regular role on the varsity playing mostly with Wendland. Howerton has played some of his best hockey in his final high school season. Ninth grade 14U AA defender Lillian Robbins has seen regular action this season and contributed four assists on the season. Senior defender Patrick Sell scored his first career high school varsity goal early in the season against Northwest / Quince Orchard. His size and presence on the blue line has caused problems for the opposition especially on the penalty kill. Ninth grade Matt Rivera and 19U AA sophomore Avery Evans have each gained valuable experience at the varsity level in their limited game action. They will be held out of this game allowing them to maximize rest for the junior varsity semifinal game directly after the varsity’s playoff game.
On defense for BCC, junior 18U AA Grady Jiggens is by far their most experienced defender. He has led the unit offensively with (12GP, 6G, 5A). He will quarterback the BCC powerplay when the Barons are playing with the extra skater. He will also play on the penalty kill and double shift at even strength playing with a variety of different defensive partners. When he is off the ice, junior 16U Upper A Benjamin Lyons (10 GP, 2G, 2A) will be on the ice. Ninth grade defender Jacob Reitz will see plenty of game action for BCC on Friday night.
Last season’s leading returning scorer Nathan Cassel (7GP, 6G, 5A) is back to full strength after missing most of the early portion of the season with an upper body injury. His hat-trick against Rockville / Magruder early in the season helped the Lightning to a 5-5 tie against the Rams. He is nearing the individual statistics necessary for inclusion in the Maryland Student Hockey Hall of Fame. For his career, Cassel has produced the following 82 points (46 GP, 39G, 43A). The Upper Montgomery coaching staff moved 16U AAA junior defender Owen Robbins to center as a means of generating additional offense. The move paid off early in the season as Robbins authored a hat-trick in the Lightning’s season opening win over BCC and he also scored four times against Richard Montgomery. Robbins has been near the top of the Lightning’s leading scorers the entire season with (10GP, 7G, 4A). He is second on the team in goals behind Upper Montgomery’s leading offensive threat, senior center Henry Honacki.
Honacki has had an offensive explosion in his final high school season. He currently leads the team in goals and points with (14GP, 12G, 7A). Honacki was on a tear recently having scored in five consecutive games before the loss to Churchill. Honacki scored the game winning goal in two important Lightning victories, beating the overtime buzzer by scoring with eleven seconds remaining in the extra period to defeat the DC Stars. It was Honacki who scored on the powerplay late in the third period against BCC in the team’s prior meeting. He leads the team in powerplay goals with four. His production on the powerplay has helped the Lightning immensely. The team has more powerplay goals already this season (10 for 31, 32.2%) than all of last year’s dismal performance with the extra attacker. Junior forward Philip Shkeda has been an offensive threat as well with (12GP, 5G, 11A) playing alongside Honacki and Cassel. Shkeda is second on the team to Berkhammer with his eleven assists.
A couple of sophomores have stepped in and filled important roles on the team this season. Returning forward Aiden Zheng has (14GP, 3G, 6A) continuing his assent from last season’s breakout during the Montgomery Hockey Conference varsity playoff tournament. Newcomer Jake Hudson has used his size well to get the puck out of the defensive zone along the boards leading to numerous scoring rushes up ice. He has (11GP, 2G, 6A). With depth an issue, several student athletes who have played the majority of their high school careers with the junior varsity team are receiving playing time this season at the varsity level; seniors TJ Gottesman, AJ Marks, and ninth grade forward Siddy Bhasin, Bhasin’s ice time has steadily increased throughout the season and his play is starting to ramp up (10GP, 1G, 4A). Senior Josh Nadler missed the beginning of the season while he was out-of-the country and has been looking to find his groove all season long.
BCC has two primary scoring threats starting with sophomore 16U AA center Leo Alley-Strocher (10GP, 17G, 7A). Alley-Strocher has added a goal and an assist in both games versus Upper Montgomery this season. The Barons second leading scorer is senior Evan Williams (11GP, 12G, 8A). Both Alley-Strocher and Williams have each scored two hat-tricks on the season. Williams in particular has tormented the Lightning over the years tallying in every game but one he has played against Upper Montgomery. After BCC’s dynamic duo, hard nosed customer sophomore Brady Page (12GP, 5G, 7A), follows in scoring. Page will not be afraid to throw his weight around and lay the body. The last true offensive threat for BCC is small, shifty skater, junior Peter Lanpher (10 GP, 4G, 3A).
The Upper Montgomery coaching staff has been sending the same message to the team all week long. BCC does not care about Upper Montgomery. Just because the Barons have lost to the Lightning twice this season does not mean a thing. BCC is going to come out hard on Friday night and will play physical the entire game. If Upper Montgomery wants to advance to the quarterfinal round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs earning a chance at the state playoffs, the team will need to take the game away from BCC. If Upper Montgomery tries to either be too cute with the puck or becomes passive in their game play, BCC will sneak through with the upset win. Upper Montgomery needs to understand that they will have to bring maximum effort for the entire game, play the correct way, and force BCC to play under stress. Let’s hope that the team’s seniors understand the urgency of the matchup as there is no longer any margin for error.
#Need to Advance, #Playoff Wins, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!