On Friday evening just before midnight, the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoff seedings will begin to take shape. Even though only halfway through the season, Friday night’s prime time showdown, a show me game so to speak, between the Upper Montgomery Lightning and the Richard Montgomery Rockets will be enlightening. The 5-0 Lightning will play host to the 4-0 and top ranked Rockets. Game time is late, 10:00 pm at Cabin John Ice Rink. Upper Montgomery will need a superior team effort to come out victorious as the strength of the teams the Lightning have beaten to date are not of the caliber of the high flying Rockets. The team defense and Ilan Shterenberg’s goaltending will need to be incredibly sharp, and the forwards will need to provide much more offense than has been generated thus far to propel Upper Montgomery to victory.
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 three outings. He will be counted on to continue his strong play to give Upper Montgomery a punchers chance at the upset. Shterenberg’s statistics over his first five junior varsity games are an eye popping 1.23 goals against average and a .939 save percentage. Shterenberg will be tested as most of the Richard Montomery junior varsity skaters also play for the Rockets’ varsity squad. In net for Richard Montgomery will be Gregory Saffell. Saffell also has outstanding statistics in the three games he has played, with a 1.07 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. He also has two shutouts this season, against Rockville and the DC Stars. If both netminders play up to their capabilities, scoring goals may be very difficult on Friday night.
Offensively, Richard Montgomery has run through both Churchill and Rockville scoring 21 of their 26 goals in those two games. The Rockets are led by senior forward Jack Evans who has nine goals in three games and 9th grade forward Aaron Hwang who has scored eight goals in four games. Against better competition the Rockets have been held to four goals against BCC and only one goal in their shutout win over the DC Stars. Richard Montgomery has received evenly distributed offensive production from the rest of their lineup with eight other skaters having scored between five and three points each. Upper Montgomery is led on offense by junior co-captain Josh Nadler. Nadler has scored in each of the team’s five games this season and has scored six goals. Junior Cole Howerton has scored four goals over the first five games of the season playing mostly on defense. Junior TJ Gottesman has chipped in with five points on three goals and two assists. Senior Sean Levine has four points. Senior co-captain Adam Levine leads the Lightning with four assists having set up Nadler multiple times on nice give and go passing plays. Against Urbana in the Lightning’s most recent game, the defense chipped in nicely, Miles Wendland scored, and Avery Evans had two assists.
On defense the Lightning’s experienced defenders are beginning to jell. Senior Jake Roth will see extensive action likely paired with Patrick Sell. Ninth grade defenders Miles Wendland and Avery Evans have played together for much of the season. Both have bright futures with the program. Depending upon game flow, Behr Schicker should cycle through the defensive pairings. With the return of AJ Marks to the lineup, Cole Howerton may drop back and play the entire game on defense. Upper Montgomery will need to maintain its defensive focus throughout the entire game to stay competitive versus the Rockets.
If the Lightning can control the faceoff dot similar to how they dominated Urbana, the extra puck possession in the offensive zone may create additional scoring opportunities. Likewise, winning defensive zone draws will limit Richard Montgomery’s 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. It was a dominating performance that led directly to three Upper Montgomery goals and nullified the Hawks’ two separate two skater powerplay advantages.
The Upper Montgomery junior varsity will be looking to extend their unbeaten record to six with a victory over the Rockets. It will not be easy when two of the three marquee teams in the Montgomery Hockey Conference battle it out on Friday night. The victor will all but guarantee a spot in the top three seeds for next month’s Montgomery Hockey Conference’s junior varsity playoffs. The loser will still have an opportunity at finishing in the top three in the standings but will need to accrue more wins over the second half of the season. Shterenberg will need to be a difference maker and stonewall the Rockets. 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 one third period goal all season. Playing with a slim lead for the majority of its games, Upper Montgomery has grown accustomed to playing in tight games, something that should be of benefit as the season winds towards the playoffs. The stretch run begins on Friday with a sprint towards the playoffs.
#Show Me, #Our Time, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!