by Yusra Husain ‘22 

Sherwood celebrates a goal scored by junior Jarden Reed in the playoff game versus Blair. Photo by Yusra Husain ‘22

The varsity ice hockey team faced an unusual 2021-2022 season with their division status changing halfway through, ultimately exposing the team to various levels of competition. The team finished the season with a 5-10-0 record, which includes 4-8-0 in the regular season and 1-2-0 in the postseason.

Sherwood was eliminated from the state tournament during their first playoff game. As the 12th seed, Sherwood played 5th seed Blair as the first four seeds received a bye to the next round. In a highly competitive game, the teams exchanged leads as puck possession occurred evenly in all zones. With regulation ending in a 4-4 tie, the game headed to a five round shootout nailbiter which ultimately ended in a 5-4 loss for Sherwood. However, their season was not over as they still qualified to play in the Montgomery Hockey Conference (MHC) playoffs.  

Sherwood next sought redemption by playing Richard Montgomery in an MHC playoffs matchup. Although Sherwood suffered a 6-2 loss to Montgomery 1 (M1) opponent Richard Montgomery in the regular season, they delivered a pleasant surprise with a dominating 7-2 win. Freshman Noi Jonasson scored 5 goals and 2 assists, tallying a point on every Sherwood goal. “We completely changed fortunes against RM. I don’t think they saw that coming and it speaks to how much we improved,” said Coach Shepard Winckler.

This accomplishment comes after the team struggled to compete with M1 opponents in the regular season. When the season commenced, Sherwood was promoted to the M1 division due to their depth and lineup with multiple travel players; they looked forward to battling with higher caliber teams such as Churchill, Walter Johnson, and B-CC. In the first game of the season, Sherwood lost to Wootton by only one goal in a tight game, and players left the rink feeling like the team was in the right division. However, Sherwood unfortunately entered winter break with a 0-8-0 record. 

“We knew that the teams we were going to be playing were much harder than last season and the years before that. We may not have won those games in M1, but we definitely played physically and gave those teams a good hard fought challenge,” expressed senior and alternate captain Timmy Rocha.

For the remainder of the season, Sherwood was scheduled to play Montgomery 2 (M2) opponents. The team collected their first win against the DC Stars with a score of 7-3. Gaining validation in M2, Sherwood extended their win streak every week, ultimately closing the regular season with a comfortable 6-1 win against Wilson on senior night. Sherwood was able to recover in M2 with a 4-0-0 record as playing M1 opponents earlier on pushed the team’s tremendous improvement despite the losses.

“It was very helpful to play M1 teams because it made us keep up our speed, strength, and effort,” explained sophomore Grayson Winckler, who led the team in points with 6 goals and 12 assists. “It taught us that we need to work hard to win games, which we were eventually able to do playing M2 opponents.” 

In addition to Winckler’s contributions to the team, junior Jarden Reed scored 13 goals  as the team’s goal-scoring leader. Senior and captain Christian Winckler and junior Sam Greenberg were also significant players who were voted as Montgomery All-Conference honorable mentions.

Jonasson was a very prominent player as well who not only had a phenomenal playoff game against Richard Montgomery, he most notably scored lacrosse-style ‘Michigan’ goals two games in a row, scooping the puck onto the blade of his stick and flicking it into the net from behind the goal line. To see the ‘Michigan’ is a rare occasion even in professional hockey; Jonasson “literally has had an impact on the culture of hockey in Montgomery County” in showing how far local players are progressing in skill, conveyed Coach Winckler. “The first half of the season, it was a big fast game and it took him a little while to settle in. But when he figured it out, he just exploded.”

After overpowering Richard Montgomey, Sherwood then faced Whitman in the highly anticipated MHC semi-finals. Unfortunately, the Warriors endured a tough 5-2 loss, which brought the season to an end. 

With nine seniors graduating and the search for a new goaltender, the team complexion is going to change for next season. Since the team is a co-op, it is unknown how many players will be from Sherwood and how many will feed from other schools. The next big question is which division the team will be placed in. Although Sherwood’s experience with M1 did not go as expected this season, Coach Winckler believes it was “a nice stepping stone to building a program.”