Author: chucklevine

The Upper Montgomery Lightning will begin the 2026 – 2027 high school ice hockey season at the end of the month when the junior varsity begins play. The junior varsity will have a nice combination of experienced returning student-athletes paired with several exciting newcomers. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the prior two seasons, when the junior varsity reached the semi-final round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs, this year’s squad is expected to once again be very competitive.

In goal, the Lightning have three junior varsity eligible goalies. Sophomore Stephen Rickman, 16U Lower A, is likely to see a bulk of the goaltending action when he is not playing in varsity game action the same week. When he is unavailable to play, the goaltending duties are likely to be split between Sophomore George Schickler and ninth grade goalie Cooper Sullivan. Schickler and Sullivan are a tale of two different goaltending styles. Schickler relies on his mobility and quickness while Sullivan is a tall goalie who takes up much of net. Last season, Schickler won two very important games in net, the playoff clinching victory over Walter Johnson along with Upper Montgomery’s quarterfinal playoff win against the combined Northwest/Quince Orchard/Wootton team. Sullivan will be working all season on challenging shooters and using his big frame to give the opposing shooters very little net to shoot at.

On defense, the Lightning have two returning defenders and two newcomers protecting the blue line. Sophomore 16U B Dylan Kim will continue to provide a steadying defensive influence on the blue line. His play has improved steadily since the spring season during his eighth grade academic year. He will be counted on to be a leader on the penalty killing unit as well. Most likely to be paired with Kim is ninth grade defender 14U Lower A Owen Hinchliffe. Hinchliffe brings an aggressive mindset to his defensive role. As the season progresses, and he becomes more comfortable with the speed of high school hockey, look for him to gain confidence as his play improves. The other defensive pairing will have sophomore Lenny Roth on the right side. Roth is a big hitter using his body to punish opposing forwards. In his first high school season, he showed enough offensively to expect that his scoring output will increase this year. Ninth grade 14U Lower A Calvin Cole will pair with Roth. Cole is a talented, but very young defender. As he matures over future seasons, his strength and skating will develop and likely making him a top pair defender.

At the forward ranks, the coaching staff will have multiple options for its forward line combinations. The squad is led by returning seniors Mason Jagoz (10G, 4G, 6A) the team’s top returning scorer and Jackson Schickler (5GP, 3G, 2A). Both have several years of experience under their belt as well as seeing action in varsity games last season. Sophomore Wyatt Ostrander (11GP, 2G, 6A) is likely to center the top forward line. He is excellent defensively and his faceoff win rate improved over the course of his ninth grade season. He is not afraid to lay the body and should be one of the team’s leaders in the locker room. Other returning junior varsity forwards are junior Decklin Hughes and sophomore Nolan Veilette, who’s play really improved during the spring. Joining these group are several newcomers. Ninth grade 14U Lower A center Cameron Newton will center the second line.

New to the team this season are juniors Michael Zaporozhetc and sophomore Benjamin Page. Both students attend Gaithersburg High School. For years, Gaithersburg High School was part of the Upper Montgomery program and then it was transferred to the Rockville/Magruder coop. Now, back within the Upper Montgomery family, big performances are anticipated out of both Zaporozhetc and Page this season. There presence in the lineup should make the Lightning formidable against all opponents.

Its time for some hockey. The Lightning junior varsity open the season on Friday evening, September 25th against Rockville/Magruder as the team kicks off their march to the junior varsity playoffs once again.

#ALL TOGETHER, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

The Upper Montgomery Lightning have begun off-ice workouts in preparation for the 2026 – 2027 high school ice hockey season. The program has a total of 24 student-athletes participating during the upcoming season. The breakdown is five goalies, six defenders, and thirteen forwards. Several students will be varsity-only student-athletes based on their grade in high school and the level of external travel hockey they play. Other students will be junior varsity-only student-athletes. Finally, many student-athletes will play for both the varsity and the junior varsity teams this season.

Similar to last season, the Lightning remain a very young team once again. The program has five seniors, five juniors, nine sophomores, and five ninth graders. The future is bright with several high-end travel eighth- and seventh-graders in the pipeline. This season, the coaches will be heavily focused on working with the students on learning the game of ice hockey, the team coming together as a family, and all students having fun. The team will be very competitive at the junior varsity level and will look to surprise teams at the varsity level.

A defense-first structure is being implemented with completely new systems to give the students the best chance of winning games. The team’s goalies will be instrumental in providing instruction on the ice and giving the team an opportunity to win every game. With the graduation of most of last season’s top scorers, the group is going to have to replace the offensive output as a whole, and not just look to one individual to put the puck in the net.

We are three weeks away from the first on-ice evaluation session. In just one month, the Lightning junior varsity open the season at the end of September. While the weather is still nice outside, it feels like it’s time to get the hockey season started!

#ALL TOGETHER, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

In late February, the Upper Montgomery Lightning program was informed that senior defender Brady Berkhammer was named to the Maryland Student Hockey League (MSHL) All-State Second Team. It is the first time in six seasons that the Lightning have had a student-athlete recognized at the state level. For Berkhammer, his senior season saw a mammoth increase in his offensive statistical performance.

The state recognition follows a senior season in which Berkhammer was named to the Montgomery Hockey Conference (MHC) First Team Division Two All-Division Team and to the MHC First Team All-Conference Team.

Brady’s individual statistics this season were 14 Goals and 17 assists for 31 points in 14 games. Inside the MHC, Brady tied for the conference lead in goals by a defender, was the conference leader in assists, and was first in points scored by a defender. When including all skaters, Brady was tied for fourth in goals, remained first in assists, and was second overall in points. At the state level, for defenders, Brady was third in goals, assists, and points. 

Brady’s career statistics finished with 64 varsity games played, 19 goals and 50 assists for 69 points.  He collected his 50^th  career assist on Miles Gleason’s powerplay goal against Whitman in the opening round of the MHC playoffs. Reaching 50 career assists guaranteed Brady’s automatic induction into the MSHL Hockey Hall of Fame.

The entire Upper Montgomery Lightning family congratulates Brady on his terrific senior season!

Earlier this month, the Upper Montgomery Lightning held its annual year-end team celebration. The 2025-2026 Lightning varsity squad once again advanced to within one game of making the Maryland Student Hockey League (MSHL) state playoffs. This is the third time in the last four seasons that the program advanced to the quarterfinals of the Montgomery Hockey Conference (MHC) playoffs. The winners of the MHC quarterfinal games automatically advance to the MSHL state tournament. The Lightning junior varsity squad advanced to the semifinals of the MHC junior varsity playoff tournament. It is the second consecutive season in which the junior varsity has lost a very close game in the semifinals.

The year-end team celebration was also a chance to honor the graduating seniors of the program:

Jason Woodman—Heading to Mississippi State to study in their renowned wildlife and fisheries program.

Owen Robbins—Heading to play junior hockey for the Connecticut Nor’Easter in the Eastern Hockey League while continuing his studies as a mathematics major at Montgomery College.

Brady Berkhammer—Heading to Montgomery College in the fall.

Philip Shkeda—Heading to Ohio State to study Industrial Engineering.

The program also honored several student-athletes for their individual performances this past season.

Seventeen of the twenty-four student-athletes received academic achievement awards from the MSHL.

Ilan Shterenberg—Voted by the other coaches in the MHC as Honorable Mention Division 2 goalie.

Tima Zamaray—Received the Junior Varsity Rocket Richard Award for most goals with 11. Received the Junior Varsity Art Ross Award for most points with 14.

Matt Rivera—Set a junior varsity playoff record for goals in a game with four. Tied the junior varsity program record for points in a playoff game with four.  Set the junior varsity program record for goals by a defender in a season with eight.  Set the junior varsity program record for points in a season by a defender with twelve.

Miles Gleason—Named to the First Team Division Two All-Conference Team as a forward. Received the Varsity Rocket Richard Award for most goals with 17.

Owen Robbins—Named to the First Team Division Two All-Conference Team as a forward.

Jason Woodman—Awarded the UML 2025/2026 season Hobey Baker Award.

Brady Berkhammer—Named to the First Team Division Two All-Conference Team as a defender. Also named to the First Team MHC All-Conference Team as a defender. Named to the Second Team MSHL All-State Team, becoming the first Upper Montgomery student-athlete to earn all-state honors in six seasons.

This season Brady’s individual statistics at the state level—Third in Goals, Assists, and Points.  Inside of MHC, for defenders tied for first in goals, first in assists, and first in points.  For all skaters, Brady was tied for fourth in goals with 14, first in assists with 17, and second in points with 31. Brady’s career statistics: 64 Varsity Games, 19 Goals, and 50 Assists.  His 50^th career assist, on Miles Gleason’s powerplay goal against Whitman in the playoffs, guaranteed Brady’s automatic induction into the MSHL Hockey Hall of Fame. Brady received the Varsity Art Ross Award for most points with 31.

#UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

As the Upper Montgomery families enjoy the start of summer, the Lightning program is gearing up for the 2026 – 2027 high school hockey season. Many of the team’s student-athletes are participating in various camps and clinics over the summer to improve their individual skill level. The team is just a few short weeks away from organized dryland workouts, beginning once the school year starts at the end of August. Then, the team will hit the ice for its first evaluation session scheduled for Monday evening, September 14.

This year, all team practices will be held on Monday evenings at either Cabin John Ice Rink or Skate Frederick. It is a much better schedule with no afternoon practices in Frederick, where students would have to rush directly from school to the ice rink. With the graduation of last season’s four seniors, the program will proceed through a natural cycle where younger student-athletes will have ample opportunity to earn significant playing time. With the exception of sophomore 16U AA Miles Gleason and senior 18U Upper A Aiden Zheng, almost all of the Lightning’s leading scorers from last season have graduated. The Lightning’s defense and goaltending are expected to be solid next season. The coaching staff is hard at work installing a playing style that will accentuate the strengths of the students, keeping the team competitive against the other programs in the county. It is anticipated once again this season that there will be very few students who do not receive varsity playing time.

Additionally, the Montgomery Hockey Conference recently announced the return of Gaithersburg High School and Watkins Mill High School to the Upper Montgomery program. These additions will bolster the team’s lineup as two student-athletes from Gaithersburg will participate with the program. The team will again have only four seniors this season, further reinforcing the youth of the students. The younger students will be counted on to play large roles sooner than would normally occur, but early varsity playing time will assist in their development down the road.

#UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

The Upper Montgomery Lightning began the recent 2026 spring hockey season with a win and a tie. While those were impressive results, the program is not concerned with the outcome of any spring hockey game. More important for the coaches is how the students are playing the team’s systems and their compete level. The coaching staff provided each student athlete with a list of three primary skills to improve upon before the fall 2026 – 2027 hockey season. The spring league games are a wonderful opportunity for the students to practice those skills in a live game environment.

The program also welcomed six new student athletes to the team: goalie Cooper Sullivan, defender Owen Hinchliffe, and forwards Kyle Zheng, Cameron Newton, Parker Zimmerman, and Aditya Samarth. Over the next four seasons, these students will grow and develop. All six will immediately fight for playing time on the Lightning junior varsity next season, and a few of the newcomers may see some occasional playing time with the varsity.

Two returning students have improved throughout the spring season. Both defender Dylan Kim and forward Nolan Veillette have worked hard to get better. They have followed the coaching instructions provided and translated the feedback into action. Their improvement should be noticeable next season during the junior varsity game competitions. After the spring season, the next time the Lightning are on the ice is in September after Labor Day, so it will be up to all the students to put in the effort during the off season to improve their game.

#Skills Development, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

The Upper Montgomery Lightning were the talk of the Montgomery Hockey Conference after the initial rounds of both the varsity and the junior varsity playoffs. With two huge upsets, the Lightning’s playoff journeys continued. The varsity advanced to the quarterfinals, where they were matched up against the second-seeded Walter Johnson Wildcats, with the winner earning a spot in the Maryland Student Hockey League state playoffs. The junior varsity advanced to the semifinals, where a matchup against the DC Stars awaited at the end of February.

The Upper Montgomery varsity team struggled through the regular season with a patchwork lineup for almost every game. The team’s leading student athletes missed time due to external travel team conflicts, long-term injuries, and non-hockey related long-term illnesses. The upset of seventh ranked, Division One opponent Whitman pushed the Lightning into an unexpected matchup against the Wildcats. It was the third time in the past four seasons that Upper Montgomery was one game away from the state playoffs. With a full roster available for the game against Walter Johnson, Upper Montgomery was looking to pull off a second consecutive monumental upset while making history, the program’s first bid to the state playoff tournament.

The game began just as Upper Montgomery had planned. Five minutes into the contest, the game was knotted up at zero. Then, off a faceoff win in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone, the Wildcats leading scorer, senior captain Henry Horwell, fired a wrist shot from the slot into the net. Even though trailing early, Upper Montgomery continued with the game plan. Off a turnover in the Lightning defensive zone, Wildcats forward Cameron Fisher scored with less than two minutes remaining in the opening period. Upper Montgomery never recovered, eventually falling by a score of 7-0. The loss ended the high school careers of Upper Montgomery’s four seniors, Jason Woodman, Philip Shkeda, Brady Berkhammer, and Owen Robbins. They will be missed.

The junior varsity entered the semifinal game as the favorites to advance to the junior varsity finals. The DC Stars only made the semifinal contest because the Silver Spring goalie was unavailable at the start of their opening-round playoff game. Unfortunately, the Lightning quickly fell behind three to nothing before the game was four minutes old. Upper Montgomery gallantly responded, cutting the margin to one over the next few minutes of action. The second period saw each team trade goals twice, setting the stage for a wild third period with the Stars holding on to a 5-4 lead.

Two DC Stars goals expanded their lead to 7-4 before the Lightning brought the game back to a one goal margin once again with six and a half minutes to play. Upper Montgomery threatened over the final minutes of action, including late in the game with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, but the team was unsuccessful in tying the game. At the conclusion of the back and forth game, the Lightning student athletes felt as if they had let a golden opportunity slip by. It was the second straight season that the Lightning junior varsity had advanced to the semifinals of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs before losing a very close game.

#Looking Ahead, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

The Upper Montgomery Lightning were the talk of the Montgomery Hockey Conference after the initial rounds of both the varsity and the junior varsity playoffs. With two huge upsets, the Lightning program is well positioned to make history during the 2025 – 2026 season.

The Upper Montgomery varsity team struggled through the regular season with a patch work lineup for almost every game. The team’s leading student athletes missed time due to external travel team conflicts, long-term injuries, and non-hockey related long-term illnesses. Entering the opening round of the varsity playoffs, the tenth ranked Lightning were seeded opposite seventh ranked and Division One opponent Whitman. Once again in the opening round playoff matchup Upper Montgomery would be shorthanded as team captain and 18U AAA senior center Owen Robbins would be out of town with his external travel team. His younger sister, 16U AA sophomore defender Lillian Robbins would also be out of town with her external travel team.

The matchup was thought to be one sided with most in the county certain that the Vikings would expose the youth of the Lightning and easily advanced to the quarterfinal round to face off with second seeded Walter Johnson. The Upper Montgomery coaching staff thought differently. They devised a stellar game plan that fooled the Lightning’s own spectators as well as the Whitman coaching staff which made no adjustments whatsoever throughout the game. Adhering to a defensive mindset, the students executed very, very well limiting Whitman. Although vastly outshot, Upper Montgomery was in the game throughout. With each shift, Upper Montgomery’s confidence grew and Whitman found themselves in a battle they did not anticipate.

At the end of the opening period of play, Lightning 16U AAA junior goaltender Ilan Shterenberg stood out making eighteen big saves, while keeping Whitman off the scoreboard. At the other end of the ice, Upper Montgomery placed zero shots on goal. The second period saw Whitman take the lead on a poor shorthanded clear by the Lightning. Then, Upper Montgomery scored on the powerplay to even the game at one mid-way through the second period. Ten seconds after the Lightning knotted the score, Whitman went back ahead. Shterenberg had zero chance on either Whitman goal as his own skaters failed him on both occasions. After two periods of play, Whitman held a 2-1 lead and were outshooting Upper Montgomery 35-7.

On Upper Montgomery’s opening goal, senior 18U AA defender Brady Berkhammer recorded his fiftieth career assist. This significant milestone automatically qualified Berkhammer for induction into the Maryland Student Hockey League Hall of Fame.

In the third period, Whitman’s most talented skater took a horrible penalty in the offensive zone slashing the stick out of Upper Montgomery ninth grade defender Lenny Roth’s hand far away from the goal. On the resulting powerplay, Berkhammer scored tying the game at two. Play continued as it had throughout the game with Whitman beginning to feel the pressure and taking uncharacteristic chances. The Upper Montgomery game plan baited the Vikings into forcing plays. With just over two minutes remaining in the game Berkhammer made an absolutely brilliant individual rush up ice scoring the game winning goal on a shot short side high into the top corner of the net.

Shterenberg and the defense made the 3-2 final score hold up as the Lightning negated the Vikings extra skater advantage at the conclusion of the game. For Shterenberg, who missed last year’s playoffs, it was his first career varsity playoff victory. He made a career high 53 saves on 55 shots on goal, .964 save percentage. The Lightning blocked an astounding 35 additional shots. At the other end of the ice, Upper Montgomery finished with ten total shots on goal. The team’s adherence to the defensive game plan confused Whitman’s student athletes and brought Upper Montgomery to within one victory of a covered place in the state playoffs. This will be Upper Montgomery’s third attempt in the seventeen years of the program to qualify for its first state playoff berth.

Prior to the Lightning’s varsity playoff victory, Upper Montgomery’s junior varsity sprung an even greater upset. In the quarterfinal round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity playoffs, the program upset the second seeded Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton combined team. Using a physical hard hitting dump and chase style, Upper Montgomery forced the combined team into spending significant time in their own defensive zone. This negated their preferred up tempo free skating offensive style. Scoring first definitely helped as sophomore 16U Lower A defender Matt Rivera lit the lamp early in the game to announce that Upper Montgomery was going to be in the contest all game long.

The first period concluded with the Lightning trailing 2-1. However, in a game most predicted to be a blowout, the one goal deficit was easy to overcome. Just one shot was needed. Deep into the second period, Rivera potted his second goal of the game with under a minute to play, pulling Upper Montgomery even at two before the end of the middle frame. Three straight powerplays at the beginning of the third period gave the combined team some momentum. A goal that Lightning ninth grade goalie George Schickler would like back put the combined team ahead with ten minutes to play.

With under four minutes left in the game, Upper Montgomery went to its first powerplay of the evening after having already been shorthanded five times in the game. Then, forty seconds later, a second penalty gave the Lightning a five on three skater advantage. Rivera scored on the five on three powerplay with a blast from the point. Then, on the tail end of the five on four powerplay, Rivera scored on an individual rush to put the Lightning ahead 4-3 with two and a half minutes remaining in regulation. Rivera’s four goal performance set many junior varsity program records. Strong defense down the stretch with the combined team’s goalie pulled led to an empty net goal by Schickler’s older brother Jackson to close out the upset win.

In an interesting dynamic, Upper Montgomery will play sixth seed DC Stars as the Stars beat number three seed Silver Spring because the Silver Spring goalie was late to the game. This permitted the Stars to score three empty net goals at the beginning of the contest coupled with an empty net goal as the end of the game to pull out the unexpected victory. Upper Montgomery beat the DC Stars by a score of 7-2 in their regular season meeting and will be looking for a repeat performance in the upcoming semifinal matchup at the end of February.

#Advance to State Playoffs, #Advance to JV Championship, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!