The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity returns to action on Tuesday, January 2nd against the Oakdale Bears. Game time is 8:35 pm. The program historically schedules a non-conference game against a challenging opponent just prior to the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoff tournament. Scheduling a high quality opponent late in the season helps prepare the junior varsity squad for the rigors of the county playoff tournament, and Oakdale is a very accomplished team. After the Oakdale game, the Lightning finish off the conference portion of the regular season against the Blair Blazers on Thursday evening with plenty on the line.
Over the next two games, the team (7-0-1 record) will be looking to tie the junior varsity program record for wins in a season (eight set during the 2021 – 2022 season). The path to success for Upper Montgomery every game is to rely on the team’s strengths, its trademark team defense, full out hustle, and playing ugly hockey. The Lightning will have to bring their compete level up a notch against the Bears. The Frederick County teams are permitted to play student athletes that play at a higher level than what is allowed in Montgomery County junior varsity games. Thus, the Bears will be permitted to play students that would not be eligible for the contest if the game was a Montgomery Hockey Conference sanctioned game.
Making the game even more challenging is that super talented 9th grade netminder Ilan Shterenberg will miss the game with pre-scheduled family travel plans. In addition, junior defender Cole Howerton, third on the team with four goals, will miss the game dealing with a short-term medical issue. Upper Montgomery is led offensively by junior T.J. Gottesman (7GP, 6G, 3A), senior co-captain Adam Levine (8GP, 2G, 7A), and junior co-captain Josh Nadler (7GP, 7G). Junior AJ Marks (6GP, 2G, 3A) had his best game of the season last time out against the Churchill Bulldogs with a goal and two assists. He will be looking to show consistency and that level of production once again. Sean Levine has played against this higher level of competition before. He is coming off a pretty backhanded goal to finish off a breakaway in the team’s recent victory over the DC Stars. Ninth grade forward Aiden Zheng is coming on strong and now has (8GP, 3G, 1A). Avery Evans is the team’s top defender in points with (6GP, 4A).
Filling in for ninth grade netminder will be Chris Hassett, dropping down from the varsity. Not a goalie, Hassett filled in last season to help manage Landon Bernard’s games played restriction and won two junior varsity games posting a 3.89 goals against average and an .800 save percentage. If Hassett can limit the Bears to just four goals, the team will be ecstatic and will have a chance for an uplifting victory. There is no doubt that the team will miss Shterenberg and his 1.50 goals against average, .937 save percentage, and three shutouts.
In net for the Bears will be Zachary Sanford. Sanford has been solid in net authoring a 4-2 record, a 4.83 goals against average, and a .805 save percentage. He has had some very good games, and in other games the Bears defense has let the team down. Depending upon which skaters the Bears dress for the non-conference game, Oakdale may rely on some forwards dropping back to play on defense.
Offensively, the Bears have a host of Upper A and AA level travel skaters in their lineup. These skaters will pose problems for the Lightning with their speed and skill level. Oakdale’s top scorer is Micah Venezie (5GP, 10G, 2A). His brother Morgan leads the Bears in assists (6GP, 5A). Daniel King has played in four games and has scored almost two points per game (4GP, 5G, 2A). Tyler Yuhas has six points in two games (2GP, 3G, 3A). Gavin Timberlake has five goals in three games. It will be quite a challenge for the Lightning on the defensive side of the ice. With Hassett in net, a position skater filling in as goalie, the Bears high powered offense may have a field day.
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 in the rotation as the fifth defender. Upper Montgomery will need to maintain its defensive focus throughout the entire game. The Lightning defense can’t get caught pinching at the offensive blue line or the Bears will constantly skate right past them into breakaways and two on one rushes. The Lightning have been perfect on the penalty kill this season and currently sit at 21 for 21 while playing a skater short. This unprecedented success has definitely helped in all of the close games Upper Montgomery has been a part of. Absent a penalty free game, it will be challenging for the penalty kill to remain perfect again on Tuesday evening.
The Upper Montgomery junior varsity will be looking to extend their unbeaten run to a program record nine straight games to open the season with a victory over the Bears. It will be very tough to achieve another win or a tie against Oakdale. 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 Tuesday evening with only two more regular season games before the start of the playoffs.
#Extend the Streak, #Our Time, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!