The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity enter the last month of the regular season with all of its pre-season goals still within reach. Although first portion of the regular season did not go as anticipated, the Lightning have won three of their past four games. The team comes into the final three regular season conference games having won two straight games including an upset of the third ranked Whitman Vikings. The Lightning also hold a victory over the second ranked team in the conference, the Walter Johnson Wildcats. The team enters the final stretch of regular season games with an overall record of 3-7 while being 3-5 in conference play.
Upper Montgomery’s goalies have struggled in net all season long. Senior Landon Bernard played very well in the team’s last game before winter break and was one of the primary reasons for Upper Montgomery’s upset win against Whitman stopping 30 of 32 shots on goal (.938 save %) and looking as comfortable in net as he has all season long. Bernard’s individual statistics (1-6 record, 5.51 goals against average, and an .823 save percentage) have taken a step back this year but if the Whitman performance is any indication, he may be back in the groove. He is aiming for redemption over the final regular season games and into the playoffs. Upper Montgomery will only go as far in the county playoffs as Bernard’s play takes the team. Ninth grade goalie Ilan Shterenberg has a bright future in the program. He has played in four varsity games this season after dominating at the junior varsity level. He has two wins, including his first career victory over the Walter Johnson Wildcats. His personal statistics are similar to Bernard’s (5.17 goals against average and an .833 save percentage).
With an experienced core of returning student athletes, Upper Montgomery had hoped this season for balanced goal scoring throughout the lineup. Last season’s top line of Chris Hassett, Nathan Cassel, and Philip Shkeda has continued to produce again this season. Unfortunately, it has been a continual search for other student athletes to step up and match last year’s offensive production. Hassett (9GP, 7G, 13A) and Cassell (10GP, 7G, 13A) share the team lead in assists and points. Shkeda (10GP, 9G, 2A) leads the team in goals. The season ending injury to Ryan Jacobson (6GP, 4G, 1A) has drastically impacted the Lightning’s secondary offense. Hunter Cameron has chipped in with (7GP, 4G, 3A) with two different two goal games. Each of the team’s other forwards, Brandon Bernard (10GP, 3G, 3A), Bradley Cupples (9GP, 2G, 4A), Olivia Robbins (5GP, 1G, 1A), and Henry Honacki (10GP, 3G, 3A) have each played well in one or two games where they have accumulated the majority of their points. The top junior varsity student athletes called upon to play in varsity game action, junior Josh Nadler and senior Adam Levine, have not received sufficient game action to have made any contributions.
On defense the Lightning have struggled all season. The team has been awful defensively at times leaving the goalies out to dry. With top defender Andrew Botti injured and unavailable for the first eight games of the season, Upper Montgomery had difficulty keeping teams out of the high danger areas. Paired with subpar goaltending, the Lightning suffered a pile of losses (six) to begin the season. With Botti back, the team has given up only three goals in two games, none while he has been on the ice. Senior co-captain Cameron has played several games on defense to help anchor and provide stability on the back end. Sophomores Brady Berkhammer and Owen Robbins, and 9th grade defender Miles Wendland have seen substantial playing time. Expect another forward to also play back on defense over the remainder of the season. The Lightning have received next to nothing offensively from the defensive corps. Outside of Cameron’s production in October’s season opener against Whitman where he scored both Upper Montgomery goals, all other Upper Montgomery defensive skaters have contributed no goals and eleven assists in 45 combined games played.
In almost every game this season, the Upper Montgomery coaching staff was going to be forced to supplement the usual varsity squad with several student athletes called up from the junior varsity. Anticipate those lesser experienced skaters to receive more playing time as a way to balance out the line combinations. Getting contributions from up and down the lineup will take pressure off the top line and allow them to receive sufficient rest on the bench between shifts. If Upper Montgomery’s scoring continues to be centralized amongst only the top four skaters, the coaching staff will be forced to constantly rely on just those few top end offensive skaters. This is not a recipe for success as their performance will deteriorate as games progress and they become fatigued. If the team’s second and third lines do not begin producing more, expect the coaching staff to begin whittling down ice time.
The other achilles heel for the team has been the dreadfully awful powerplay. The Lightning have not scored at all this season when on a traditional powerplay with the extra skater, currently sitting at 0-21 on the season. The team’s only ‘powerplay’ goal was scored on a penalty shot converted by Nathan Cassell against Good Counsel.
The Lightning have a month left in the regular season before the program defining Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs begin at the start of February. The Upper Montgomery program had very high expectations for this season after the conclusion to last year and with so many highly talented student athletes returning. Fortunately, the team’s primary goal remains attainable. The Lightning still have a great opportunity to make the state playoffs, but it will take complete team dedication, playing hockey the right way, dogged puck support all over the ice, a 1000% commitment to team defense, and making good decisions that will put the team on the precipice of history.
Going into the season, the junior varsity was expected to be better than last year with the team needing talented 9th grade goaltender Ilan Shterenberg to be a difference maker in net. The junior varsity games were expected to be lower scoring as the team used its defensive strength to focus on preventing the opposition from scoring. This is exactly how the season has played out. Shterenberg has played excellent for the junior varsity this season. His season statistics are a 7-0-1 record with three shutouts. He has given up more than two goals in a game only one time (when playing against Churchill 2’s varsity squad). Shterenberg has a .937 save percentage and a 1.50 goals against average. His play in net will ultimately determine how successful the team is and how far the Lightning junior varsity advances in the junior varsity county playoffs. He has the talent and ability to steal any game by himself.
The other core reasons for the junior varsity’s 7-0-1 undefeated start to the season has been the team’s leadership and team defensive play. Unlike what may be occurring with the varsity, the junior varsity is not worried about who scores and how the game looks visually. The junior varsity has worked hard each game and has focused on defense only giving up twelve goals in the first eight games of the season. The penalty kill has been a perfect 21-21 on the season including a couple of long 5-3 kills.
With a few junior varsity games throughout the league left to play, the Upper Montgomery junior varsity has earned a bye in the opening round of the junior varsity playoffs as well as a home game in the quarterfinal round. If the team beats Blair in its final regular season conference game in early January and receives some additional help, the Lightning junior varsity has an outside chance at winning the Montgomery Hockey Conference regular season championship. It would a truly deserving reward for how well the team has played this season. Another obtainable goal is to tie or set the junior varsity program record for wins in a season. The team currently sits one win behind the 2021 – 2022 Lightning squad which finished the season with an 8-4-2 record.
Offensively, the coaching staff knew it would be a mixed bag. Some games it was anticipated that the junior varsity squad would generate offensive much more capably than last season. Other games, mounting much of an attack would be challenging. This is because the team has no one individual skater that can take over a game by themselves and propel the team to victory. It was going to be a success by committee approach and that is what has played out.
The offense has been scoring just enough with the team averaging 3.5 goals per game. Junior TJ Gottesman (7GP, 6G, 3A) and senior co-captain Adam Levine (8GP, 2G, 7A) lead the team in points with nine. Levine’s seven assists pace the team in helpers. Josh Nadler leads the team in goals with (7GP, 7G), scoring in each of the first six games of the season. The team has received plenty of depth scoring with junior Cole Howerton (8GP, 4G, 2A), senior Sean Levine (8GP, 2G, 3A), junior AJ Marks (6GP, 2G, 3A), and 9th grade forward Aiden Zheng (8GP, 3G, 1A) chipping in and contributing. Sean Levine scored a pretty breakaway goal against the DC Stars deking to his backhand before lifting the puck. It was a highlight reel goal. A minute later Adam Levine’s dazzling push through, walk around, far side, top shelf marker could be the goal of the season for the program. Adam Levine has also set up Nalder with a few nifty give and go pretty passing plays. He has an outside chance over the conclusion to the season at setting the program record for assists and points at the junior varsity level.
Defensively, the Lightning’s experience and team defense has stood out. Jake Roth, Cole Howerton, Patrick Sell, Miles Wendland, Avery Evans (6GP, 4A), and Behr Schickler have limited the opposition’s quality scoring chances. When breakdowns occur, the forwards have been in position defensively to clear the high danger areas and get pucks out of the defensive zone. This combination has allowed the Lightning to play with the lead or tied for most of the entire season. The team has competed with maximum effort, commitment to each other, and with stellar defensive play. This execution must continue for the junior varsity to reach its goals. It has been a nice regular season thus far, but the end of the season needs to be strong against stronger competition to put the squad in position for a long run in the season ending conference playoffs.
#Extend the Streaks, #Our Time, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!