The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity played a team with comparable talent on Friday night when they met up with the DC Stars at the Medstar Iceplex (home of the Washington Capitals practice facility). Not having to play one of the top teams in the county was all the team needed to hear. The young Lightning took it from there burying the Stars with an avalanche of goals to earn their first victory of the season. Although the teams appeared to be evenly matched on paper, Upper Montgomery was by far the stronger team and had an enormous advantage in net.
The game got off to a bit of an odd start as Upper Montgomery sophomore forward Max Israfilbek encountered a skate problem that forced him to miss the entire first period of the game. With the coaching staff already having to adjust the lines to account for the absence of junior defender Max Curtusan, the list of available forwards had shrunk considerably. Senior captain Jason Woodman dropped back to play defense and with Israfilbek not out on the ice, the Lightning were down to six available forwards. After the first couple of shifts, the Lightning settled down into two cohesive forward lines.
Three and a half minutes into the game, Lightning sophomore defender, alternate captain Matt Rivera gave Upper Montgomery the lead. For the second consecutive game he raced up ice on an end to end rush something the coaching staff has been encouraging him to do more and more. The Stars had the puck in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. A shot from the left faceoff circle flew wide of the net. Rivera picked up the puck in his left defensive corner. He carried the puck up ice out of the defensive zone down the left side of the ice. He traveled through neutral ice down into the DC Stars defensive zone. At the top of the left faceoff circle he he cut towards the slot before swerving back toward the left goal post. As he neared the crease he skated to the right while shooting with his forehand back against where he had skated in from. Stars goalie Rhys Seiden-Maloney hurried to his left in anticipation of Rivera continuing to go across the crease. He was caught by surprise and way out of position when Rivera lifted the puck into the wide open near side of the net for his second goal of the season.
The flow of the game for the next seven minutes was choppy. Upper Montgomery’s defensive style was out of sync with the lineup changes. With just under five minutes left in the first period, the Stars took advantage. A Stars defender took possession of the puck in his own defensive zone. He quickly passed the puck wide to the left wing to Stars forward Harry Fishman. Fishman was stood up in neutral ice so he fired the puck back over to the right where fellow forward Felix Fougere stood at the center red line. Fougere entered the Lightning defensive zone on the right side of the ice. With both Upper Montgomery defenders converging on him along with a back checking Lightning forward, Fougere sent a nifty centering pass to Robert Joachim. Joachim found himself all alone because of the overplay by the Upper Montgomery defense. He faked a shot deking around Lightning netminder Porter Stutsrim-Lyons to the right side of the net. With a prone Stutsrim-Lyons looking on hoping that Joachim would lose control of the puck, it was not to be as Joachim deposited the puck into the open net evening the score with his second goal of the season.
With the score tied Upper Montgomery showed a burst offensively over the final five minutes of the opening period, almost as if the DC Stars goal served as a wake up call. An Upper Montgomery dump into the DC Stars defensive end was stopped by Seiden-Maloney. He shifted the puck to his defense. Lightning ninth grade right wing Tima Zamaray came in hard on the forecheck. The Stars defender skated directly into Zamaray who lifted the puck off his stick. From the left faceoff circle, Zamaray sent a wrist shot high to the far side of the net. Seiden-Maloney got his glove up but not high enough. The puck clipped off the top of the goalie’s glove dropping down towards the goal line. It snaked across the goal line just before Upper Montgomery junior forward Mason Jagoz buried it to the back of the net. Zamaray’s first career high school goal gave Upper Montgomery the lead once again.
On the duo’s next shift they connected to increase Upper Montgomery’s lead to 3-1. Off of a faceoff in neutral ice outside the Stars defensive blue line, junior center Jackson Schickler won the faceoff forward. Zamaray reached the puck first heading down the right wing into the offensive zone. At the bottom of the right faceoff circle, he sent a spinning backhand pass to the slot. Jagoz controlled the sharp pass on his own backhand, took a step toward the net, and roofed a rising backhand shot high over Seiden-Maloney’s stick and blocker for his first goal of the season.
The second period saw Israfilbek return to active participation in the game. His arrival jumbled up the line combinations. It took the Lightning a few minutes to get settled back into their attack mode. Just as they were getting more comfortable Israfilbek was called for a roughing penalty. While shorthanded, Zamaray was penalized for interference. Down two skaters for the second time in three games, the Lightning deployed ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander along with Rivera and ninth grade defender Dylan Kim to perform penalty killing duties. The trio was once again excellent at keeping the DC Stars to the perimeter allowing Stutsrim-Lyons to clearly see the Stars long-range shots.
After the successful penalty kill the Lightning went back on the offensive. Unfortunately, many good scoring chances flittered away shot wide of the goal or blocked in the slot in front of Seiden-Maloney. From a faceoff in the left faceoff circle in the offensive end, the Lightning lost the draw. With possession in the right defensive corner, the Stars defense wrapped the puck along the rim of the boards behind their net up the left side boards. Upper Montgomery ninth grade defender Lenny Roth charged in from his right point position cutting off the puck. In one motion he sent the puck up in the air toward the net. The shot from along the right wing boards outside the faceoff circle arched toward the net landing just as Seiden-Maloney reached out his glove to catch the puck. The puck squirted under Seiden-Maloney’s glove and between his legs. For Roth, his first career high school goal gives him bragging rights in the family as his older brother Jake concluded his Lightning hockey career having scored no goals. More importantly, the late second period unassisted strike gave Upper Montgomery some breathing room.
Upper Montgomery had fifteen minutes remaining to capture their first victory of the season. Roth’s goal was key as it gave the Lightning a bit of a cushion at 4-1. Five minutes into the third period, Roth’s goal took on additional importance as the Stars cut the Upper Montgomery lead to 4-2. The Lightning had the puck in the DC Stars defensive zone. A body check by the Stars defense jostled the puck loose just ahead of the goal line in the left defensive corner. The loose puck was picked up by Fougere. He traveled down the left wing all the way from his defensive end to the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. He cut wide outside of the Upper Montgomery defense. When he was at the top of the left faceoff circle he cut to the net. Woodman came over to poke check the puck instead twisting Fougere. As he was falling through the low slot area, Fougere shot a wrist shot high across his body to the top left corner of the net. The shot went over Stutsrim-Lyons’ stick and blocker for his first goal of the season.
With renewed energy by cutting the score to 4-2 the Stars started to increase their physical play. Upper Montgomery focused solely on defense and getting the puck out of the defensive zone. The defensive alignment worked perfectly as it neutralized the Stars over the next seven minutes of game action. As the clock ticked under three minutes remaining, Zamaray controlled the puck at the center red line. He carried the puck through the neutral zone down the middle of the ice to the Stars defensive zone. As a DC Stars defender fell, Zamaray lost control of the puck attempting to stickhandle through the entire Stars defense. The puck made its way into the left corner. Zamaray kept his legs moving beating the DC Stars to the puck. He centered a pass to the slot. The puck went straight through the slot to Roth at the right point. Roth’s shot went high and well wide of the net. A Stars forward failed to clear the puck with Woodman keeping the puck in at the left point. Woodman sent the puck bouncing into the slot where it was picked up by Zamaray. He backhand shuffled the puck toward the net where it somehow trickled through Seiden-Maloney’s five hole for his second goal of the game. The Upper Montgomery lead was 5-2 with 2:39 remaining.
Twenty seconds later on the next shift the Lightning salted the game away. Jagoz won the center ice faceoff forward. He retrieved the puck between the DC Stars defenders carrying the puck into the Stars defensive zone. He traveled into the left corner, then around the net coming out into the right faceoff circle. He passed the puck into the slot for Zamaray. The puck ricocheted off Zamaray’s stick to the center point of the blue line. Kim smacked the puck forward toward the slot where it deflected off a Stars defender bouncing right to the feet of Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Miriam Baron. Baron played the puck as she was blown up by a massive illegal check. The puck went past the last Stars defender to Jagoz all alone in the low slot. He had no trouble elevating a wrist shot over Seiden-Maloney’s glove hand to the top right corner of the net for his second goal of the game.
Jagoz finished the scoring thirty seconds later with his first career hat-trick. The puck was played to the right defensive corner by Stutsrim-Lyons. Zamaray picked up the puck carrying it back around the Lightning net up ice down the left wing boards. As he traveled through the left faceoff circle in the offensive zone he went around the Stars defender cutting toward the goal looking for his own hat-trick. Zamaray tried to stuff the puck past Seiden-Maloney stick side at the near post. The goalie who was under fire all game stopped the stuff attempt. Jagoz, following the play to the doorstep of the crease, slid the rebound between his legs.
The Lightning junior varsity was only able to celebrate their victory for a few minutes before the team had to change locker rooms and get ready for the varsity game directly following the win. Getting their first win of the season should give the junior varsity a boost of confidence moving forward. The outcome was huge for qualifying for the season ending junior varsity playoffs as the Lightning will likely be battling the Stars and the Whitman Vikings for one of the final playoff spots.
Game Notes:
- Upper Montgomery outshot the DC Stars 35-26 for the game. It was a turnaround from the first two games of the season where the Lightning were badly outshot by the opposition.
- Lightning junior forward Mason Jagoz scored his first career hat-trick by scoring all three of his goals within eight feet of the net.
- Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Tima Zamaray scored his first career high school goal as part of a four point evening on two goals and two assists.
- Upper Montgomery ninth grade defender Lenny Roth scored his first career high school goal.
- Lightning sophomore defender Matt Rivera scored on an end to end rush for the second consecutive game.
- In addition to earning the victory, Lightning sophomore goaltender Porter Stutsrim-Lyons was credited with an assist on the last goal of the evening.
- Upper Montgomery ninth grade forward Miriam Baron collected her first career high school point with an assist.
- Lightning ninth grade defender Dylan Kim had an assist notching his first career high school point.
- Upper Montgomery killed off yet another 5-3 powerplay, increasing their powerplay effectiveness to 87.5% for the season.
- Upper Montgomery played without their most hulking defender when junior Max Curtusan missed the game with an upper body injury.
- The Upper Montgomery junior varsity is next in action the afternoon of Friday October 24th when the team plays the undefeated 3-0-1 Churchill Bulldogs. Game time is early, a 4:05 pm puck drop at the Rockville Ice Arena.
Three Stars of the Game:
First Star—Tima Zamaray—Upper Montgomery Forward—2 Goals, 2 Assists
Second Star—Mason Jagoz—Upper Montgomery Forward—3 Goals
Third Star—Felix Fougere—DC Stars Forward—1 Goal, 1 Assist