The Upper Montgomery Lightning face an uphill battle on Wednesday evening against the DC Stars. The team’s leading scorer and co-captain, forward Josh Nadler will miss the game serving his one game supplemental disciplinary action. The team’s standout goalie, Ilan Shterenberg will be returning from a school sponsored trip to New York. Emergency backup netminder Chris Hassett will be on standby in case there is a travel delay with Shterenberg getting back to the DC area. The team’s second leading scorer, TJ Gottesman will also miss the game. And, with illness traveling around the DC Metropolitan area, the number of available skaters could decrease further before puck drop.
If the Lightning should prevail on Wednesday evening, they will all but certain need just one more victory over their final two games to secure a bye in the opening round of the junior varsity playoffs. Receiving a top seed in the playoffs is certainly something to shoot for. It has been a welcome change this season for the Lightning junior varsity rebounding from last season’s 4-5-2 record to record wins in each of their first six games this season. There are two very winnable games upcoming on the schedule. With a deep playoff run, the team could threaten the junior varsity record for wins in a season, eight, set during the 2021 – 2022 junior varsity championship season (8-4-2 record).
The path to success for Upper Montgomery on Wednesday evening will be its trademark team defense, hustle, and playing ugly hockey. The team’s effort will need to be extraordinarily high as Nadler will not be available to skate the puck out of harm’s way. If the Lightning are able to lock down the Stars, they may be able to score just enough (one or two goals) to emerge victorious. The team is a perfect 18 for 18 on the penalty kill and that unprecedented success surely has helped in all of the close game Upper Montgomery has been a part of.
Ninth grade netminder Ilan Shterenberg began his high school career authoring two shutouts. He has followed up allowing only two goals against in each of the last four outings. He will be counted on to continue his strong play to give Upper Montgomery any chance at a victory over the Stars. Shterenberg’s statistics over his first six junior varsity games are an eye popping 1.36 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. A case can be made that Shterenberg, along with Nadler are two of the most valuable student athletes on the roster. In net for the DC Stars will be Gabriel Sokol. Sokol has had a very good start to the season as well and has a 2.14 goals against average and an .895 save percentage. If both netminders play up to their capabilities, scoring goals may be very difficult on Wednesday night. The goaltenders strong play coupled with the trouble each team has scoring goals, Upper Montgomery is averaging 3.5 goals per game and the DC Stars are averaging 2.6 goals per game, could make this a very low scoring affair.
Offensively, the Stars are led by forward Kai-Handy Kanegis who has three goals and an assist in five games. Harry Fishman and Nicholas Rosenberg have each scored twice. Usually, Upper Montgomery is led on offense by junior co-captain Josh Nadler. Nadler has scored in each of the team’s six games this season and has scored seven goals. However, he will be unavailable for the game. Also unavailable will be junior forward, TJ Gottesman. Gottesman has an uncanny ability to rack up points by being in the right place at the right time. His four goals and three assists will be missed. Junior Cole Howerton will likely play offense against the DC Stars. He has scored four goals and added two assists over the first six games of the season. Senior co-captain Adam Levine leads the Lightning with five assists in six games having set up Nadler multiple times on nice give and go passing plays and helping generate key goals off of faceoff wins. Howerton and Levine are likely to play on the same line on Wednesday as the team looks to generate offense without its top two points leaders.
On defense the Lightning will likely have a rotation of Avery Evans paired with Jake Roth and Patrick Sell paired with Miles Wendland. Anticipate that Behr Schickler will see time as both a defender and a forward during the game. Upper Montgomery will need to maintain its defensive focus throughout the entire game and not get caught up ice allowing the Stars to get into their transition offense and counterattack with odd skater rushes.
If the Lightning can control the faceoff dot and get clean zone exits, and if the team competes in the dirty areas across the ice the extra puck possession in the offensive zone may create additional scoring opportunities. Likewise, winning defensive zone draws will limit the DC Stars offensive zone time. Expect Adam Levine to take the majority of the high danger faceoffs especially if the game is close late. Levine, shifted to center by the coaching staff for the Urbana game, is coming off of winning 20 of 24 faceoffs against the Hawks and 11 of 19 faceoffs versus Richard Montgomery. The dominating performances have led directly to four Upper Montgomery goals including the last two game winning goals.
The Upper Montgomery junior varsity will be looking to extend their unbeaten record to seven with a victory over the Stars. It will not be easy playing without two key contributors. As has been the case all season long, Shterenberg will need to be a difference maker and stonewall the Stars. If he does, and if the team’s stout defense shows up, the Lightning can remain competitive deep into the game. Upper Montgomery has been terrific late in games preventing the opposition from scoring. The Lightning have given up only two third period goals all season while playing with slim leads in most games. Upper Montgomery has grown accustomed to playing in tight games, something that should be of benefit as the season winds down towards the playoffs. The stretch run continues for the junior varsity on Wednesday with a sprint towards the playoffs.
#Extend the Streak, #Our Time, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!