The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity squad is back in action this Friday evening against the BCC Barons in a rematch of the season opener for both teams. Game time is 8:45 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. Upper Montgomery prevailed in mid-October by the score of 4-3 to claim the program’s first ever victory over BCC in the sixteen years that the Upper Montgomery ice hockey program has existed.
Upper Montgomery has reached the mid-point of the 2024 – 2025 season with a 4-2-1 conference record (4-3-1 overall) and is ranked sixth in the county. All three of Upper Montgomery’s losses are to teams ranked in the top fifteen in the state; Wootton twice and Urbana. Upper Montgomery has reversed a trend that developed over the past couple of seasons, very slow starts. Last year, the team began the season 1-7. In 2022 – 2023, the team began the season 1-4-1. While the Lightning eventually recovered nicely over the middle and second portion of each of those seasons, getting off to a better start this year puts the team in position to secure a top six seed in the season ending Montgomery Hockey Conference playoff tournament. Finishing sixth or higher eliminates having to face the top two teams in the county, Walter Johnson and Whitman in the playoffs.
Additionally, the Lightning will be looking to build off last week’s overtime buzzer beating win over the DC Stars and carry that momentum into this week’s game against BCC. Meanwhile, this is clearly a rebuilding season for the Barons who are playing many student athletes in their first and second years of high school. BCC has wins against the two bottom teams in the county; Northwest / Quince Orchard twice and Richard Montgomery who played against BCC with a depleted roster. The Barons are 3-5 on the season and have been really limited offensively against quality opponents. Most of the BCC offensive output has come against Northwest / Quince Orchard and Richard Montgomery.
Once again Upper Montgomery will not be at full strength as last season’s leading returning scorer Nathan Cassel continues to recover from an upper body injury. His likely return of after the Thanksgiving holiday has been pushed back until the start of the new year. Cassel may be available for the Lightning’s next game after the winter holiday break. However, this season’s leading scorer Owen Robbins will return after missing the DC Stars contest as he was out-of-town with his external travel team. Philip Shkeda also returns to face BCC after missing last week’s game with an illness. If the early season game between the two teams is any barometer, the game on Friday should be a physical low scoring affair. Expect a lot of play in the neutral zone and along the boards with each team trying to threaten the high danger scoring areas. Whichever goalie plays better and whichever team excels in special teams situations will likely win the game.
Upper Montgomery’s goaltender, sophomore 16U AA Ilan Shterenberg has been sound this season with a 4-3-1 record, a 4.32 goals against average, and an .888 save percentage. His statistics are a little misleading as two games, one against Wootton and the Urbana game skew his personal statistics dramatically. Shterenberg played well against the DC Stars making 44 saves (the second highest of his career) on 46 shots. He will again be backed up by ninth grade 14U Lower A netminder Porter Stutsrim-Lyons. Stutsrim-Lyons is 3-2-2 on the season with two shutouts. He sports a 1.98 goals against average and a .928 save percentage playing for the Lightning junior varsity.
In net for the Barons is expected to be senior 19U AA Vivienne Boyle. She took the loss in the season opener against Upper Montgomery. Last season, Boyle backstopped the Barons to a 7-2 victory over the Lightning in the team’s only meeting. She has played in all but one game for the Barons over the first portion of the season as her goaltending partner, Tycho Narrod-Malcolm finished up the high school football season. Boyle is solid in net and the Lightning will need to work hard to score against her. She has a 2-5 record with a 5.59 goals against average and a .793 save percentage.
On defense, the Lightning will be tested by the Baron’s forecheck. The Lightning’s most experienced defender junior 16U AA Brady Berkhammer (8GP, 2G, 7A) will pair with ninth grade 14U AA Lilian Robbins (4GP, 4A) Thus, sophomore 16U Lower A defender Miles Wendland (7GP, 3A) will skate with senior Cole Howerton. Howerton played the best game of his high school career recently against Richard Montgomery. Senior Patrick Sell will dress out for the game but may see limited action as he will pull double duty by also playing in the junior varsity game Friday afternoon.
The Barons most experienced skater is senior 18U AA defender Grady Jiggens (8GP, 4G, 3A). Jiggens and junior 16U Upper A defender Benjamin Lyons (6GP, 2G, 1A) give the Barons two very good pieces on the back end. Lyons scored against Upper Montgomery late in the season opener with the goalie pulled for an extra skater. Sophomore Nick Sexton is playing both varsity and junior varsity for the Barons this season as is ninth grade 14U Lower A defender Jacob Reitz (7GP, 1G, 3A). Teams usually do not like to play an entire game with only four defenders, so BCC may use some student athletes that had previously played forward to help out and take some shifts on defense like Jeronimo Castano-Tellez and David High.
Offensively, Upper Montgomery should be in much better shape this week with the return of juniors Owen Robbins and Shkeda. Robbins (6GP, 7G, 3A) scored a hat-trick against the Barons in the season opener. Shkeda (6GP, 4G, 5A) scored shorthanded in the second period for the goal that would ultimately stand up as the game winner. Senior 18U Upper A center Henry Honacki (8GP, 7G, 2A) shares the team lead in goals with Robbins. It was his offensive production against the DC Stars that propelled the Lightning to victory. Honacki potted two powerplay goals last week including the game winning overtime goal with eleven seconds remaining in the extra session. It was just the third overtime goal in team history. Honacki has scored three of the Lightning’s last four goals.
Sophomore 16U Lower A Aiden Zheng is averaging almost point a game (8GP, 2G, 4A) and seems more comfortable at the varsity level this season. He is a high energy forward who backchecks very well. Sophomore newcomer Jake Hudson has (6GP, 6A) but is still looking for his first career varsity goal. Ninth grade 14U Lower A forward Siddy Bhasin is also looking for his first career varsity goal. Bhasin’s performance last time out against the DC Stars was his best game of the season. Hudson and Bhasin are two of the top three scorers for the Lightning junior varsity with eight points each.
After these five forwards, it is going to be important for any of Upper Montgomery’s other forwards to step up and provide some offensive production. Senior center Josh Nadler and senior forward TJ Gottesman, both of whom are in the top five of the Lightning junior varsity’s all-time scoring list need to get going. Ninth grader Luke Hudson scored his first career varsity goal last week against the DC Stars. Senior AJ Marks, junior Jason Woodman, and ninth grade forward Decklin Hughes, really anyone outside of the top five forwards getting on the scoresheet would benefit the Lightning. Continuing to receive offense from Berkhammer and the rest of the defense would be a bonus and could alter the game in the Lightning’s favor.
The Lightning were two for three on the powerplay against the DC Stars and are producing at a 37.5% success rate. The downside is that the team has managed only sixteen powerplays in their first eight games of the season, an average of just two extra skater advantages per game. Potting a powerplay goal or two would be a key to sweeping the season series from the Barons.
BCC top returning scorer 16U Lower A forward Peter Lanpher, a point a game producer last year (16GP, 4G, 11A) has struggled this season (6GP, 2G, 2A). He was definitely helped last season by playing with several stud BCC seniors. Senior Evan Williams has always stood out in games played against Upper Montgomery (scoring in his last four games against the Lightning) and is the Barons second leading scorer this year (7GP, 9G, 6A). Sophomore 16U AA Leo Alley-Strocher is the Barons leading scorer (7GP, 13G, 5A), and he also scored in the season opener against Upper Montgomery. He is on the smaller side but has good speed and stickhandling skills. Expect senior Michael Kambouris (8GP, 2G, 2A) to continue to see lots of ice time throughout the rest of the season. Hard hitting sophomore 16U Lower A Brady Page (8GP, 3G, 4A) will be noticeable throwing his weight around. From there, the Barons will use a large number of young and inexperienced skaters. Sophomore 16U Lower A Ramin Jacobs (6GP, 1G, 3A) who scored a hat-trick against the Lightning junior varsity in October, and junior Kiran Maltby (6GP, 2G, 2A) will be featured throughout the contest against Upper Montgomery.
Coming out of the Thanksgiving break, the Lightning needed to ramp up their game. As teams gear up for the end of the season and the playoffs regular season games have more meaning and the competition intensifies as was evident in last week’s contest against the DC Stars. With a win over the Barons on Friday night, the Lightning are hoping to put some space between themselves and several of the teams just behind them in the conference standings. Getting two games over .500 and continuing their best start to a season in several years, the Lightning are hoping to head into the two week winter break on a role having won three of their last four games. Let’s hope the outcome of Friday’s game is a springboard for the second half of the season and that good things are in store for the program over the final month of the regular season.
#Season Sweep, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!