The 2025 – 2026 high school hockey season is coming up on the most important time of the year, the playoffs. The Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoffs begin on Friday, January 16th. The varsity playoffs begin two weeks later on Friday, January 30th.
The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity will face off against the the combined Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton squad in the quarterfinal round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. The regular season game between the two programs was a wildly entertaining 7-4 victory for the combined team. The game was much closer than the final score would indicate with the Lightning closing the deficit to one goal o two different occasions in the third period before Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton scored two late goals to salt away the victory. Even though this is the seventh seeded Lightning versus the second seeded combined team, this game comes with a caveat. With the game being played on the opening night of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, many travel level student athletes are likely to miss the game as it is an enormously popular travel team tournament weekend. Additionally, families may be leaving town for the long three day weekend. So, maybe the primary key to the contest is which student athletes are actually in town and available to play in the game. In prior seasons, the quarterfinal round has had multiple upsets depending upon which teams had the majority of its squad intact for the quarterfinal round games.
When Upper Montgomery has played the upper echelon teams in the county, the Lightning have been heavily outshot in each game. Thus, the team will need to make every offensive opportunity count. The team’s overall focus on defense first hockey is to lighten the need to keep pace offensively and score toe to toe with the top teams. Upper Montgomery has averaged 2.89 goals per game this season. However, if you remove the two games where the Lightning exploded for goals against the weaker teams they played, the goals per game average sinks to an average of only 1.86 goals per game. It is hard to win hockey games averaging less than two goals per game. On the flip side, the team has averaged giving up five goals per game. The goals per game average increases in games that the Lightning’s starting junior varsity goalie, sophomore 16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons has not been in net.
Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera (8GP, 4G, 2A) will play with ninth grade defender Dylan Kim. Junior hard nosed defender Max Curtusan will use his big frame to body up the combined team’s forwards. Curtusan will play with smooth skating ninth grade defender Lenny Roth. If any defender struggles or gets into penalty trouble, this may be another game where Upper Montgomery senior captain Jason Woodman (9G, 4A) drops back to play on defense. Rivera has scored each of his four goals on the season off of end to end rushes up ice. He is tied for second on the team with his four goals. The young defenders getting to play significant minutes in the playoff contest will illustrate how much they have improved since the off-ice preseason practices began in August.
Ninth grade forward Tima Zamaray leads the junior varsity in scoring with (9GP, 9G, 3A) and is coming off of a recent four goal game versus Walter Johnson. Zamaray had a personal four game goal streak snapped against BCC. Junior forward Mason Jagoz (8GP, 4G, 5A) including a hat-trick against the DC Stars and four assists against Walter Johnson is second on the team in points while his five assists lead the Lightning junior varsity. His four goals are tied with Rivera for second on the team. He returns after missing the game against the Barons. Ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander (9GP, 2G, 3A) is still basking in glory after scoring the game winning goal in the final minute against the Wildcats to help push Upper Montgomery into the playoffs.
As has been mentioned over and over this fall and winter, the 2025 – 2026 season was thought to be one where the coaching staff was focused on individual student growth and development. With eight incoming junior varsity students in their first season of high school hockey, the program was looking for all eight of these students to contribute to the program over the next four seasons. The playing time received this season should definitely help each student become better in the years to come when Upper Montgomery is likely to be better positioned to again challenge for the junior varsity championship. The program won the Montgomery Hockey Conference Junior Varsity Championship four years ago during the 2021 – 2022 season. This season, the team may simply be too young and inexperienced to compete on the defensive end of the ice. The quarterfinal game against the combined Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton team is a terrific opportunity for the Lightning to spring an upset and move on to the semifinal round of the playoffs. Getting to the semifinal round of the playoffs would equal the performance of last year’s junior varsity team that also advanced to the semifinals before losing a hard fought game to top seeded Wootton.
The Upper Montgomery varsity team has one final regular season game remaining against BCC. Then, the following week the varsity playoffs will commence. Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg gives the Lightning a chance in every game he plays. He enters the BCC game with a 2-4 record, a .895 save percentage, and a 3.77 goals against average. If he is on his game, Upper Montgomery can beat any team in the conference.
The Lightning’s leading scorer, also the leading defensive scorer for all of Montgomery County, as well as the second leading defensive scorer throughout the entire Maryland Student Hockey League, senior 18U AA Brady Berkhammer will once again lead the Lightning’s backline. He has been exceedingly good so far this season averaging two and a half points per game with (11GP, 11G, 16A). Berkhammer is also within a few points of the lead for the entire Montgomery Hockey Conference in scoring with his 27 points. His eleven goals, 16 assists, and 27 total points are all personal single season career highs.
Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (6GP, 4G, 11A), flanked by fellow senior and last year’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (5GP, 6G, 5A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (7GP, 16G, 7A) has been DOMINANT. The problem has been the Lightning have had this line available only three times this season. Robbins has missed time with his external travel team. Shkeda returned for the team’s last game after being out long-term with an upper body injury. Gleason just recently returned from his own month long absence due to a medical issue. Gleason has provided instant offense this season with three points or more in four of the seven games he has played in during his inaugural season. In their absence, junior 16U Upper A forward Aiden Zheng (10GP, 3G, 5A) has stepped up and provided a spark. He has scored in three of the previous five games. His hustle, energy, and defensive backchecking are examples for the younger students who should be watching how Zheng plays away from the puck.
It is now time for the students to parlay the learning and development they gained in the regular season into substantive results during the stretch run and the playoffs. It is all going to come down to commitment on the defensive end of the ice. If the team plays with the defensive habits taught by the coaching staff, and plays with the urgency and edge necessary to win in the post-season, the Lightning can beat any team in the county that they would face off against in the playoffs. Or, is the team simply unwilling to commit to the style of hockey necessary to win and advance. The squad’s performance leading up to the end of the regular season will tell us a lot about the team’s fortunes and what to expect in the end of season playoffs tournaments.
#Playoff Wins, #Advance, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!