Author: chucklevine

Junior Varsity Annapolis / Arundel Game Preview

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After a three week break, the Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity will face off against non-conference foe Annapolis / Arundel on Monday evening. The neutral site game is being played at Laurel Ice Gardens with the opening puck drop scheduled for a 6:15 pm start. Annapolis / Arundel enters the game with a 3-2 record having lost 5-1 to South River earlier this week. Upper Montgomery sits at 1-5 and is looking to get back in the win column before the final two junior varsity games of the regular season. The upcoming early January game against Walter Johnson is a must win. In its last game, Upper Montgomery fell 3-2 on the road at Harco up in Abingdon, Maryland.

Starting in net for Upper Montgomery will likely be ninth grade goalie George Schickler. Schickler would be making his third start of the season. With starting junior varsity goalie16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons slated to play in the varsity game on Friday evening, it is likely that Schickler will start on Monday. Backing up Schickler will likely be another ninth grade goalie, Stephen Rickman. Depending upon the flow of the game, and which goalie is chosen to start, the Lightning’s coaching staff may play Rickman in the back half of the game. Both Rickman and Schickler have seen multiple games of action this fall as Upper Montgomery is loaning both netminders to Walter Johnson High School. The Wildcats do not have a junior varsity eligible goalie on their roster. Thus far this season, Annapolis / Arundel has started 14U Lower A goalie Frederick Bright in each game. Bright has a 3-2 record, a 3.60 goals against average, and an .882 save percentage. Backing up Bright is 14U Lower A Bryne Olson. Olson has yet to see game action this season.

On defense Monday night, the Lightning should finally have a full complement of defenders. Anticipate that both ninth grade defenders, Dylan Kim and Lenny Roth will get plenty of playing time. With 16U Lower A Matt Rivera missing the varsity game this Friday evening, he should be raring to go on Monday. Rivera has worked hard to make himself an offensive threat this season (6GP, 3G, 1A). His end to end rush goals have been a new development in his game. He is coming off scoring his first ever varsity goal this past Friday evening. Junior Max Curtusan will round out the defensive alignment. His size and toughness around the net should help out against the Annapolis / Arundel forwards. The young defenders getting to play significant minutes against Annapolis / Arundel will be a good barometer of how much they have learned during their recent limited varsity action.

For Annapolis / Arundel their defensive will be up in the air as well. With eight rostered defenders and the game against Upper Montgomery being an non-conference game, the Panthers coaching staff may give more playing time to some of their depth defenders. Ninth grade 14U Lower A Isaac Waesche leads the Panthers defense with (5GP, 2G, 2A). Sophomore 16U Lower A Peter Back leads the Annapolis / Arundel defense with three assists in five games. Ninth grade 14U Lower A Nikolai Chernovsky also has three points in five games (5GP, 1G, 2A). Other defenders anticipated to received regular ice time are Braden Burrows, William Keuleman, and Matthew Keys.

Coming into the season the Upper Montgomery coaching staff knew that offense was going to be a continuing struggle all season long for the Lightning’s junior varsity squad. Some unexpected scoring has emerged from junior forward Mason Jagoz (6GP, 4G, 1A) including a hat-trick against the DC Stars. Ninth grade forward Tima Zamaray leads the junior varsity in scoring with (6GP, 4G, 3A). Senior team captain Jason Woodman has (6GP, 3A). Sophomore 16U Upper A Max Israfilbek has (5GP, 2G). Ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander has (6GP, 1G, 2A). Upper Montgomery’s goals scored per game have slowly increased to an average of just under three goals per game. The team’s overall focus on defense first hockey was to lighten the need to keep pace offensively and score toe to toe with the top teams in the conference.

Annapolis / Arundel is lead in scoring by ninth grade 14U Lower A center Calan Brewster who has had a very nice start to his high school career (3GP, 7G, 2A). Fellow ninth grade 14U Lower A forward Elliott Langbein is not far behind (3GP, 4G, 4A). Junior 16U Lower A Kyler Porzillo (5GP, 4G, 2A) is permitted to play at the junior varsity level as the conferences that govern the outside counties allow all students below the AA level to play junior varsity hockey until their senior season. Another ninth grader, 14U Lower A Brayden St. Louis has (5GP, 1G, 3A). William Woodson-Potter is another forward that should play in the Panthers top two lines.

As has been mentioned over and over, the 2025 – 2026 season will be one where the coaching staff is focused on individual student growth and development. With eight incoming junior varsity students, the program is looking for all eight of these students to contribute to the program over the next four seasons. The playing time received this season should help each student become better in the years to come when Upper Montgomery is likely to be better positioned to again challenge for the Montgomery Hockey Conference junior varsity championship. As part of this development, the program scheduled two non-conference games to provide the junior varsity students with additional game action to continue to develop their skills. The focus this season is on ingraining the necessary defensive habits and building a rough and tough physical identity for the program. How soon the Lightning will threaten the top junior varsity teams in Montgomery County will be determined by how fast the entire team picks up on how the defensive side of hockey is played at the high school level.

This season, the team may simply be too young and inexperienced to compete on the defensive end of the ice. The hope is that by the end of the year no program wants to be matched up against the Lightning in the opening round of the junior varsity playoff tournament. Monday’s non-conference game is a terrific opportunity for the team to hone its game heading into the final two conference games of the regular season.

#UML, #Back to Winning, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

Varsity Silver Spring Game Preview

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The Upper Montgomery Lightning will be looking to string together two consecutive victories when the team hosts the Silver Spring Blazers on Friday night. Puck drop is at 8:45 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. In the team’s first meeting, Upper Montgomery jumped out to a huge 6-1 lead before failing to continue to play in their structured defensive system. The deviation from defensive hockey opened the door to a massive comeback for the Blazers. Even having a three goal lead with four minutes remaining in regulation, Upper Montgomery continued to cough up chance after chance allowing the Blazers to tie the game late before scoring the game winner with four seconds left. Upper Montgomery’s offense was really good, scoring seven goals. The last twenty minutes of game play, the team’s defensive performance was putrid giving up seven goals (eight total on the night) and suffering a loss that spiraled into the start of a five game losing streak.

The Lightning still have a bad taste in their mouth and will be looking for payback on Friday evening. Sophomore goaltender 16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons will also be looking for redemption as he felt personally responsible for the team’s loss which was not the case. Recently, each week, the Lightning have had to cobble together the team’s lineup as upper level students have been missing the high school games while they have been out-of-town with their external travel teams or injured. Last week, saw the return of stating goaltender 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg and ninth grade 16U AA high scoring forward Miles Gleason. Their return along with the return of junior forward Jackson Schickler means that the squad is just waiting on its two first line senior forwards to return to action and the team will again be at full strength. Upper Montgomery’s team depth has been severely tested as these upper level talented students have missed games. Many ninth graders and sophomores have stepped into key roles a couple of years before they are physically ready to play at the high school varsity level.

Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will again miss playing against the Blazers. He has a 2-2 record, a .904 save percentage, and a 3.30 goals against average. Shterenberg opened the season pitching a 25 save shutout against the DC Stars for the first shutout of his varsity career. Stutsrim-Lyons will start in his place. The Blazers, are expected to start ninth grade 14U Upper A goalie Myle Amirthalingam. In the first game, Upper Montgomery had no difficulty scoring on Amirthalingam finding the back of the net seven times. He is a small goalie who relies on his athletic ability and quick side to side movement. The Blazers’ young goalie has a 3-1-2 record, a 3.75 goals against average, and an .829 save percentage. Upper Montgomery will be trying to repeat their scoring barrage to prove it was not a one off performance.

On defense, the Lightning will again likely roll with four defenders. The Lightning’s leading defensive (and overall) scorer, senior 18U AA Brady Berkhammer has been awesome this season, (7GP, 9G, 12A). He is also the leading scorer in the county. He is by far the leading defensive scorer, six points clear of the closest defensive scorer in the Montgomery Hockey Conference and for all of the Maryland Student Hockey League. Berkhammer will need to play a very strong defensive game against the Blazers. Last week he was asked to shadow and shut down the league’s leading goal scorer, Ethan Custodio of Northwest / Quince Orchard, and did an admirable job. Lightning junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland (7GP, 1G, 2A) has taken on a larger role this season. He played his best game of the season last week. The Upper Montgomery coaching staff changed up the defensive pairings and played Wendland with Berkhammer to attempt to throttle Custodio. The strategy worked with both Berkhammer and Wendland shining in the Lightning’s victory! Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera (7GP, 1G, 3A) will miss the Blazers game due to the farce of a major boarding penalty called against him last week. The league reviewed the hit and confirmed that the contact was not worthy of a penalty, much less a major penalty. Unfortunately, a stupid USA Hockey rule prevents the referees from overturning the call once the game is uploaded and finalized in the scoring system. Rugged junior defender Max Curtusan returns to the lineup this week and he will likely be paired with Wendland. Sophomore 16U AA defender Lillian Robbins returns from several weeks away playing with her external travel team. She likely will slide in and play with Berkhammer. The Lightning’s two young ninth grade defenders will dress for the game, but may not play very frequently if at all. Dylan Kim and Lenny Roth have both gained valuable experience over these past few weeks and have played safe solid hockey.

The Blazers leading returning defender is senior former 16U AA Joey Killebrew who has increased his scoring this season. Killebrew plays more of a puck possession game while excelling at taking away time and space in the neutral zone. His year to date personal statistics are (8GP, 4G, 2A). Sophomore 16U AA Simon Holland leads the team in scoring (7GP, 8G, 4A). He had a massive game against Upper Montgomery with four goals and an assist in the first game. It was his goal from long range with four seconds remaining in the contest that proved to be the game winner. Sophomore 16U AA Dan Sellers (7GP, 1G, 3A) is more of a defensive defender. Senior 18U Upper A Robert Woodward (7GP, 3G, 2A) and Junior Ethan Hedberg both have a substantial amount of experience at the varsity level. They bring added leadership to the younger Silver Spring defenders allowing the Blazers coaching staff to play a full complement of defenders to keep their back end fresh. The Blazers depth defenders, Tobias Lin and Rakshay Narayanan will play as well. If all of the student athletes are present for the game, the Blazers have the best core of defenders in division two of the Montgomery Hockey Conference.

Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (3GP, 2G, 7A), flanked by fellow senior and the Lightning’s leading scorer last season Philip Shkeda (4GP, 6G, 4A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (4GP, 11G, 5A) have been DOMINANT. Unfortunately, the trio has played together only twice this season as Robbins has missed time with his external travel team. Shkeda is still out for the next month or so with an upper body injury. The good news was that Gleason returned from his own recent month long absence due to a medical issue. In his return Gleason provided instant offense with two goals and two assists. He now has four points or more in three of the four games he has played in. Next week, it is anticipated that Robbins will be back in action for the Lightning. So, the team is getting its top line forward members back slowly over the course of the next several weeks. In their absence, junior 16U Upper A forward Aiden Zheng (6GP, 2G, 3A) has stepped up and provided a spark. He has scored in two of the previous three games. His hustle, energy, and playmaking are an example to the younger students who should be watching how Zheng plays away from the puck.

The Blazers score by committee as they don’t have that one dominant skater to carry their team. Junior 16U AA Mason Boucher leads the Silver Spring forwards in scoring with (6GP, 3G, 7A). Next is ninth grade 16U AA Foster Miles with (6GP, 3G, 5A), followed closely by 18U AA William Campbell (6GP, 5G, 2A) and ninth grade 14U Upper A Rodrick Hobbs (6GP, 6G, 1A). Ninth grade forward Victor Dvorson (7GP, 2G, 3A) had an goal and two assists versus Upper Montgomery in October. The Lightning are well versed in what Silver Spring will attempt to do offensively on Friday night. They will send multiple forwards to the net to cause chaos. They will look to have shooters push out into the slot between the faceoff circles flinging shots on goal with the opponent’s goalie screened. Expect that the Silver Spring defense will also be well integrated into the offensive zone play. Upper Montgomery’s forwards will have to be aware when a Blazers defender cuts to the net looking for a back door pass.

The only way that Upper Montgomery will climb up the county standings and rankings and consistently win games is by being buttoned up on the defensive side of the ice. The Lightning must suffocate the game and play a very hard physical defensive game against high powered offensive skaters. The goaltending also needs to be better. There have been several games recently when a soft goal or two against has deflated the team. The Silver Spring game will come down to which team is better able to manage the puck in their own defensive end of the ice to limit the other offense from getting good looks. If the game is a repeat of the wild affair from October, look out as the spectators will be incredibly pleased.

#Redemption, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

Lightning Strike Blog–November 2025

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The Thanksgiving holiday break signifies the mid-point of the high school hockey season. For the Upper Montgomery Lightning getting into the second half of the season can’t arrive soon enough. Both the varsity and junior varsity have struggled at the start of the season with matching 1-5 records. The Upper Montgomery varsity opened the season with an 8-0 shutout of the DC Stars, had a big lead against the Silver Spring Blazers entering the third period in week two, and then have played very few good periods of hockey since. The defense first mindset disappeared with the teams unexpected explosion of goals five periods into the season. The varsity lineup has had zero semblance of consistency on a week to week basis. Three long term injuries combined with constant lineup juggling when highly talented members of the team have been of town with their external travel teams has crippled the anticipated varsity roster.

Offensively, when playing with the expected lineup, the team has received several standout performances. The Lightning’s leading defensive (and overall) scorer, senior 18U AA Brady Berkhammer has been awesome so far this season, (6GP, 7G, 11A). He is tied for the county lead in scoring with 18 points. He is by far the leading defensive scorer, six points clear of the closest defensive scorer in the county. He is the leading defensive scorer for all of the Maryland Student Hockey League. Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center, and team captain, Owen Robbins (3GP, 2G, 7A), flanked by fellow senior and last season’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (4GP, 6G, 4A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (3GP, 9G, 3A) have been DOMINANT. Unfortunately, the trio has played together only twice this season. Robbins has missed half of the initial portion of the season with his external travel team. Shkeda is still out for the next month or so with an upper body injury. The good news is that Gleason is expected to return this week from his own recent month long absence due to a medical issue. Outside of  junior 16U Upper A forward Aiden Zheng (5GP, 2G, 3A), the younger student and depth skaters have not been able to contribute offensively.

On defense, several younger students have played meaningful minutes alongside Berkhammer and junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland. This experience will help in future seasons, but the young defenders are at a size and speed disadvantage currently. This may be one of the reasons that the team’s penalty kill has been abominable. Upper Montgomery has successfully killed off three powerplays during the opening six games while giving up five powerplay markers to the opponents.

Upper Montgomery’s primary goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg pitched a 25 save shutout in the season opener. Overall, he has a .900 save percentage and a 3.56 goals against average. When he has been out of town with his external travel team, the Lightning’s younger netminders have stepped in. The defense in front of them has been porous as Upper Montgomery has given up the most goals in the county through the first half of the season. Since the opening night shutout, goals scored against the Lightning each game have been eight, nine, six, nine, and seven. The number of breakaways given up has been astonishing. Then, when the defense plays well for a long stretch during a game, weak goals have gone in past the Lightning’s quartet of goalies.

With rematches to come against teams Upper Montgomery has faced during the first half of the season, the Lightning will be looking to change their fortune. The only way to accomplish a season turnaround is on the defensive side of the ice. The team must be committed defensively and stick to the team’s systems. The Lightning must suffocate the game and play very physical against high powered offensive skaters. The goaltending also needs to be better. There have been several games recently when a soft goal or two against has deflated the team and sucked the energy out of a comeback rally. Most of the Lightning’s game will come down to which team is better in their own defensive end of the ice. Will the Lightning skaters show the urgency necessary to limit and contain the opponents, or will the team allow skater to float all over the ice unencumbered. There was too much watching and swiping at pucks during the first half of the season rather than hard nosed aggressive physical play. 

The Lightning junior varsity has done a pretty good job of adhering to the team’s systems. The challenge at the junior varsity level has been that the young Lightning are playing with eight incoming ninth graders. These young students are learning how to play at the high school level where the competition is much more advanced than at the youth hockey level. So, plays that used to work for these students are counteracted at the higher level of play. The junior varsity’s schedule has been very difficult. The team has been competitive against the best teams in the county losing by close margins to the top ranked teams, and playing with these top teams for much of the games.

Offensively, the team is led in scoring by ninth grade forward Tima Zamaray (6GP, 4G, 3A). Junior Mason Jagoz had a hat-trick in the team’s win against the DC Stars and is tied for the team lead in goals (6GP, 4G, 1A). From the defensive side of the ice, sophomore Matt Rivera has flourished offensive as he has gained confidence in his second season. He has scored on three end-to-end rushes over the first six games of the season. The team has picked up some additional depth scoring from Wyatt Ostrander, Max Israfilbek, and Jason Woodman. Zamaray, Ostrander, ninth grade defender Lenny Roth, and sophomore goaltender Porter Stutsrim-Lyons (skating out) have each scored their first career high school goals.

The young defenders, Dylan Kim and Lenny Roth have come a very long way from the summer off-ice workouts. They have adapted quickly to how they have to play at this level to be successful. Due to the weekly varsity lineup shuffling, each has played some unanticipated games with the varsity this season. Junior Max Curtusan has laid the body well and has improved significantly from last season.

In goal, the Lightning’s three goalies have each played in games this year. Stutsrim Lyons has the most experience and it has shown as he has a .926 save percentage and a 2.52 goals against average. Both Stephen Rickman and George Schickler have bright futures. To gain extra experience they have been staffing the Walter Johnson junior varsity games as the Wildcats do not have a junior varsity eligible goaltender.

The first half of the 2025 – 2026 season has been one of growth and development for the green and gold’s younger student athletes.  It is now time for the students to parlay the learning and development into substantive results during the second half of the season. How quickly the team develops the defensive habits and edge necessary to lead the program forward will determine if the Lightning can again challenge the upper echelon teams in the county.  Or, is the team simply too young to compete right now this season.  The squad’s performance leading up to the December holiday break will tell us a lot.

#Second Half Wins, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

Varsity Northwest / Quince Orchard Game Preview

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The Upper Montgomery Lightning open the second half of the varsity season this Friday evening against the Northwest / Quince Orchard Jaguars. The meeting is a matchup of the two programs ranked at the bottom of the Montgomery Hockey Conference standings. Each team brings their 1-5 record into the beginning of the second half of the league schedule. The Lightning will be on the the hunt for redemption as Northwest / Quince Orchard walloped Upper Montgomery 9-3 in the team’s earlier matchup the season. Game time is 8:45 pm at Rockville Ice Arena.

The Lightning still have a bad taste in their mouth resulting from allowing Jaguars senior center Ethan Custodio to do whatever he pleased during first meeting. Custodio scored six times against Lightning, with five of his goals coming on clean breakaways. It was a terrible defensive performance by Upper Montgomery considering that Custodio is the most talented student athlete for Northwest / Quince Orchard. The Lightning’s entire defensive game plan was designed to focus on him.

Recently, each week, the Lightning have had to cobble together the team’s lineup as upper level students have been missing the high school games while they were out-of-town with their external travel teams. Coupled with injuries and medical absences of two of the Lightning top offensive threats have created fluctuating game day rosters from week to week. When the Lightning are playing with less than a full roster, the team’s depth has been severely tested. Upper Montgomery has many ninth graders and sophomores stepping into key roles a couple of years before they are physically ready to play high school varsity level hockey.

Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will play in net for the second consecutive game and for only the third time this season. Shterenberg opened the season pitching a 25 save shutout against the DC Stars for the first shutout of his varsity career. Last game he made 46 saves in a defeat at the hands of the Richard Montgomery Rockets. He kept the team in the game with many quality saves over the first two periods of the game. Shterenberg enters the contest with a .900 save percentage and a 3.56 goals against average. Northwest / Quince Orchard will start sophomore 16U Lower A goalie Sean Wyatt as he is the only goalie on their roster. The Jaguars are much more competitive this year than in seasons past. Wyatt has been much more effective this season with a better complement of defenders in front of him. Although he has a 1-5 record, his personal statistics are an .849 save percentage and a 5.83 goals against average. Upper Montgomery will be trying to repeat their scoring barrage from the past couple of weeks as the team looks to score enough to counteract Custodio’s influence on the game.

On defense, the Lightning will role with four defenders once again. It might get to the point where all forwards take shifts on defense to spread out the ice time. The Lightning’s leading defensive (and overall) scorer, senior 18U AA Brady Berkhammer has been awesome this season, (6GP, 7G, 11A). He is tied with Custodio for the county lead in scoring with 18 points. He is by far the leading defensive scorer, six points clear of the closest defensive scorer in the county and for all of the Maryland Student Hockey League. Berkhammer will need to play a very strong defensive game against the Jaguars. He may be asked to shadow Custodio all over the ice. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera (6GP, 2A) will likely pair with Lightning junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland (6GP, 1G, 2A) who has taken on a larger role this season. The team’s alternate captain is a steady, smooth skating defender who is rarely caught out of position. At times, a challenge for the lanky defender has been bodying up playing in the Lightning’s more physical defensive style. As mentioned throughout this game preview, the Upper Montgomery defense’s primary (maybe only) focus will be on shutting down Jaguars leading scorer, senior 18U AA Ethan Custodio (5GP, 16G, 2A). With the Jaguars having the last line change as the home team, expect that Custodio will pick and choose his spots against the Lightning’s depth skaters to try and be more assertive offensively during those shifts.

The Jaguars leading returning defender is senior former 18U AA Roman Martin. Martin is the Jaguars third leading scorer (6GP, 3G, 3A). Martin scored a powerplay goal against the Lightning in the first meeting. Upper Montgomery forwards will have to keep track of Martin sneaking in from the points in the offensive zone and jumping into the rush up ice from behind the play. Other defenders who will be deployed by the Jaguars are 16U AA Andrew Isaacson, junior George Mason, and ninth grade defender Evelin Tulchinsky.

Offensively, the Lightning coaches figured the team would have a tough time scoring this season. Well, that assumption has gone out the window when the top line is all together. Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (3GP, 2G, 7A), flanked by fellow senior and last season’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (4GP, 6G, 4A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (3GP, 9G, 3A) have been DOMINANT. Unfortunately, the trio has played together only twice this season as Robbins has missed time with his external travel team. Shkeda is still out for the next month or so with an upper body injury. The good news is that Gleason returns from his own recent month long absence due to a medical issue. Next week, it is anticipated that Robbins will be back in action for the Lightning. So, the team is getting its top line forward members back slowly over the course of the next several weeks. In their absence, junior 16U Upper A forward Aiden Zheng (5GP, 2G, 3A) has stepped up and provided a spark. He has scored in the previous two games. His hustle, energy, and playmaking are an example to the younger students who should be watching how Zheng plays away from the puck.

ALL of the Northwest / Quince Orchard offense originates and goes through Custodio. He leads the county in goals with sixteen. At this pace, he will very likely exceed his last two year’s of production (13GP, 20G, 11A) last year. As a sophomore he scored 26 goals. He is bringing it in his final high school season powering past the fifty goals plateau to qualify him for automatic induction into the Maryland Student Hockey League Hall of Fame. Lightning forwards will have to be aware of getting sucked into to the play too much when Custodio is on the ice. Upper Montgomery just can’t give him time and space like last game where he had five breakaway goals. Custodio has a history of scoring at least three points per game against the Lightning which he did in all three meetings between the teams last season. Young forwards Thomas Kruhlak (5GP, 3G, 1A), (Kuba Okrasa (5G, 1G, 3A), and Nicholas Berl (5G, 2G, 5A) will try and provide Custodio with some offensive support, not that he needs a whole lot of assistance.

The only way that Upper Montgomery will get out of their current five game losing streak and consistently win games is by being buttoned up on the defensive side of the ice. The Lightning must suffocate the game and play very physical against high powered offensive skaters. The goaltending also needs to be better. There have been several games recently when a soft goal or two against has deflated the team. The Northwest / Quince Orchard game will come down to which team is better in their own defensive end of the ice. Will the Lightning skaters be able to limit and contain Custodio, or will the team allow him to skate all over the ice unencumbered. Custodio’s performance alone will dictate the outcome of this game.

#Redemption, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

Defensive Lapses Cost Upper Montgomery in Loss to Rams

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One week after a porous defensive performance against the Northwest / Quince Orchard Jaguars, the Upper Montgomery Lightning played better for long stretches on Friday night versus the Rockville / Magruder Rams. However, a series of defensive lapses was enough for the Rams to claim a 6-3 victory over the Lightning. The defeat was the third straight for the Lightning since an opening night victory over the DC Stars. Upper Montgomery has not beaten Rockville / Magruder over the past two seasons.

The first shift of the game saw the Lightning gift the Rams the opening goal. Off the center ice faceoff to begin the game, the puck went sideways to the left wing boards. Rams forward Adam Salomon sent the puck back to Rockville / Magruder senior defender Max Yuen. Yuen went around his own goal from left to right then sped out of the defensive zone up the left wing boards. He flew past the Lightning’s defense which stood flat footed before cutting to the net. He went in alone on a breakaway against Upper Montgomery ninth grade goalie George Schickler making his first career varsity start. Yuen tried to stuff the puck past Schickler from in close. Schickler made an acrobatic save on his first ever varsity shot attempt. Unfortunately, the rebound went forward directly into the skates of Lightning junior defender Miles Wendland and then caromed back into the net off the ricochet. Wendland was rushing back to stop the breakaway from the opposite side of the ice. Less than thirty seconds into the contest Upper Montgomery already trailed by one.

After the initial Rams strike, Upper Montgomery played well for the rest of the period. It was if the early goal was a wake up call to the team with the game being played in the 10:00 pm Cabin John ice slot. Shots on goal during the period were close with Rockville / Magruder credited with nine shots on Schickler while Upper Montgomery fired eight shots on Rams ninth grade 16U AA goalie Ethan Rabinovitch.

The second period had significantly more action. Three minutes into the period, Upper Montgomery’s leading scorer from last season, senior forward Philip Shkeda scored his sixth goal of this season to knot the score at one. With a faceoff in the right faceoff circle in the defensive zone, Lightning 18U AAA center, team captain Owen Robbins won the draw back into the right corner to Wendland. Wendland flung the puck down ice on a set play. Wendland’s home run pass off the left wing boards went straight to Shkeda who had skated straight up ice off the faceoff draw. Behind the Rams defense, with pressure behind him, Shkeda fired a wicked wrist shot from the left faceoff circle short side high over Rabinovitch’s right shoulder to his stick and blocker side.

Things continued to look up for Upper Montgomery. Schickler was not unnerved by the early breakaway goal and was playing very well. The game was tied. Upper Montgomery was giving up way fewer odd skater rushes. Then, a minute after Shkeda tied the score, Rams defender Yuen took a checking from behind minor penalty. The Lightning were headed to the powerplay with a chance to take the lead. Yuen also received the automatic misconduct penalty that comes with a hit from behind penalty. So, he would be in the penalty box for just about the rest of the second period.

Instead of being able to build on the momentum off of Shkeda’s goal, while on the powerplay, Upper Montgomery sophomore defender Matt Rivera’s shot from the left point hit Rams sophomore 16U AA forward Alexander Johnston in the right hip. The puck caromed forward outside the offensive blue line. With Johnston facing the puck and both Lightning defenders moving away from the puck, Johnston had a clear breakaway from the opposite blue line all the way in on Schickler. From the middle of the slot he ripped a wrist shot high over Schickler’s glove hand for his fourth goal of the season. The Rams were back up by one at 2-1.

Upper Montgomery had another powerplay opportunity go awry when Rams defender Calder Wilcox was issued a roughing penalty with six minutes left in the period. Once again, Upper Montgomery failed to convert. Two minutes later Upper Montgomery’s leading scorer, senior 18U AA defender Brady Berkhammer received his own checking from behind minor and misconduct penalties. Up 2-1 the Rams now had a golden opportunity to extend their lead with the extra skater and Berkhammer off the ice for approximately ten minutes.

From the right faceoff circle in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone, Rams 16U AAA center Cameron Gifford won the faceoff to the right wing. He chased the puck down along the boards, turned toward the left point, and sent the puck to the right point for Rams defender Lincoln Herrick. Herrick’s wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle was saved by Schickler. However, the young goaltender was not able to control the rebound. The puck popped out to the slot where two Lightning skaters failed to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. The puck was kept in the offensive zone at the blue line by the Rams other defender Lukas Aagaard. Coming towards the puck, Aagaard fired a long slap shot along the ice at the net. Schickler made a nice left pad save with the puck directed into the right corner. Another failed defensive clear was held in by Aagaard. His shot at the net was steered wide by Schickler. Johnston was standing at the left side of the goal unguarded as both Upper Montgomery defenders were focused to their left where Aagaard’s shot originated from. Johnston put a backhand pitch shot up over Schickler’s right shoulder short side. His second goal of the evening, fifth of the season extended the Rams lead to 3-1 with three minutes left in the second period. It was also the fourth consecutive powerplay where opponents had capitalized.

On the next shift, Johnston scored his hat-trick goal, his sixth on the season to put the Rams up 4-1. Upper Montgomery cleared the defensive zone all the way to the Rams defensive zone. The puck was sent up ice to Gifford at center ice. He laid a backhand flop pass to Johnston on the right wing boards. Johnston entered the Upper Montgomery defensive zone along the boards on the right wing. Three Lightning skaters flailed their sticks at Johnston with none of the three making contact with Johnston’s body or the puck. Johnston left a drop pass off the boards for Gifford. Gifford’s wrist shot from the top of the slot was targeted for the top right corner of the net. Schickler got his glove up to knock the puck down. It went off the shaft of the stick of Salomon down to the ice. Johnston did not hesitate once the puck landed shooting low along the ice past Schickler’s left leg pad.

In the last minute of the period, the Lightning got one back. Shkeda pressured the puck at center ice causing a turnover by the Rams defense. Robbins swooped in taking control of the puck. He headed down the right wing boards into the offensive zone before skating around the Rams remaining defender. Robbins cut to the net where he shifted the puck to his backhand and lifted his shot over Rabinovitch’s right leg pad past the goalie’s body into the far side of the net. Robbins second goal of the season provided a spark near the end of the period. As the second period ended soon thereafter, Upper Montgomery was down 4-2 while being outshot by a twenty to sixteen margin.

The start of the third period saw Upper Montgomery change goalies. This was a planned goalie switch that was scheduled to be made halfway through the game. The change was postponed due to how well Schickler was playing. Ninth grade goalie Stephen Rickman was inserted into the game to also gain varsity experience. Just as Schickler was rudely greeted in the first period, Rickman was treated similarly. Off the center ice faceoff to start the third period, Johnston won the draw to Gifford. Gifford took the puck forward to the Upper Montgomery blue line. Upon entering the offensive zone, he passed back to Johnston at the top of the left faceoff circle. Johnston’s shot was high and wide of the net but was kept in at the right point by Rams defender Izzy Levine. Her shot toward the net hit the side of the goal with the puck deflecting into the right corner. Gifford was first to the puck. He sent a pass to the slot into a pile of skaters. Salomon was able to shovel the puck to Johnston standing alone at the side of the net. All the star forward needed to do was knock the puck into the open left side of the net. His fourth consecutive score was his seventh of the season.

With eleven minutes left in the game, Rockville / Magruder extended its lead to 6-2 when Michael Zaporozhetc scored his first goal of the season. Lightning forward Max Israfilbek played the puck behind the Rams net. Herrick picked up the puck sending an outlet pass to Rams forward Adam Suitor in the defensive zone. Suitor carried the puck up ice to just inside the Upper Montgomery defensive blue line. Suitor’s shot on net was a pad save for Rickman, one of his eighteen in the third period. The rebound went directly to Zaporozhetc at the left side of the net. It was an easy score for the forward as he shot quickly before Rickman could regain his footing after making the initial save.

With just over a minute remaining in regulation, Aagaard was assessed a minor penalty for roughing. From the opening powerplay faceoff in the right faceoff circle, Robbins won the puck back to Berkhammer at the right point. Berkhammer skated around an onrushing Rams forward. From the slot he sent a booming wrist shot at the goal with Upper Montgomery sophomore defender Lillian Robbins screening Rabinovitch. The puck went past Rabinovitch’s stick and blocker to the top left corner of the net. The powerplay marker was Berkhammer’s third goal of the season.

Another disheartening loss. Somehow, over the past few games, Upper Montgomery has completely deviated from the necessary defensive style of play that the Lightning used very effectively in their season opening blowout victory over the DC Stars, and what should have been a second straight blowout victory over Silver Spring. Now, the Lightning have reverted to giving up far too much time and space to the opponents. This lack of team defense has led to far too many breakaways against the Lightning’s goalies. The losses to Silver Spring, then Northwest / Quince Orchard, and now Rockville / Magruder have all been due to lack of playing within the Lightning’s necessary defensive structure of play.

Game Notes:

  • Upper Montgomery was badly outshot by Rockville / Magruder 40-19 for the game. The difference in shots on goal was in the third period with the Lightning trying to rally in the game. The Rams vastly outshot the Lightning twenty to three in the final fifteen minutes of action.
  • Upper Montgomery gave up four goals Alexander Johnston. It is the third straight game that the Lightning have allowed a skater to score four or more goals.
  • Upper Montgomery senior forward Philip Shkeda left the game early in the third period with an upper body injury.
  • Brady Berkhammer leads the Montgomery Hockey Conference in assists with ten over four games and in defensive scoring with thirteen points.
  • Upper Montgomery ninth grade goalie George Schickler received his first career varsity start in net.
  • Lightning ninth grade defender Lenny Roth saw his first extensive varsity game action.
  • Upper Montgomery has given up more powerplay goals (four) than successfully killed penalties (two). The penalty kill is mired in having allowed four consecutive extra skater goals.
  • Upper Montgomery returns to the ice next Friday evening for another late night tilt. The game against Richard Montgomery also begins at 10:00 pm inside the Cabin John Ice Rink.

Three Stars of the Game:

First Star—Alexander Johnston—Rockville / Magruder Forward—4 Goals
Second Star—Cameron Gifford—Rockville / Magruder Center—3 Assists
Third Star—Owen Robbins—Upper Montgomery Center—1 Goal, 2 Assists

Junior Varsity Harford County Game Preview

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After a three week break, the Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity will face off against non-conference foe Harford County (HarCo) on Monday afternoon in a pre-holiday matinee. The away game is in Abington, Maryland, at Ice World with puck drop scheduled for 4:40 pm. HarCo enters the game with a 0-3 record. With Upper Montgomery sitting at 1-4, it should be a competitive game.

Upper Montgomery scored four goals on Halloween afternoon against the combined Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton squad, coming back three separate times to cut the deficit to one goal. Outside of this last game and the victory over the DC Stars, the Lightning junior varsity had only scored four goals for the season. HarCo has the same issues scoring. They have deposited just five goals over their three games on the season. With each team hard pressed to score, one would anticipate the game to be relatively low scoring.

Both teams will have decisions in net as each squad has three junior varsity eligible goalies. It is anticipated that both teams may split the game in net. Upper Montgomery will likely start one of its ninth grade goalies in either Stephen Rickman or George Schickler. Depending upon the flow of the game, and which goalie is chosen to start, the Lightning coaching staff may play sophomore 16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons in the back half of the game. Both Rickman and Schickler have seen multiple games of action this fall as Upper Montgomery is loaning both netminders to Walter Johnson High School. The Wildcats do not have a junior varsity eligible goalie on their roster. HarCo has a similar interesting dilemma. They have three junior varsity goalies and have been splitting time in each of their first three games of the season. Ninth grader Jackson Scalli has the best numbers of the three as he has a 1.96 goals against average and a .963 goals against average. Ninth grade goalies Brody Szyjka and Jacob McBee have far less successful statistics.

On defense Monday afternoon, the Lightning will piece it together with who is available to play. Anticipate that both ninth grade defenders, Dylan Kim and Lenny Roth will get plenty of playing time. This may be another game where Upper Montgomery captain Jason Woodman drops back to play some on defense. 16U Lower A defender Matt Rivera has scored on end to end rushes in three games this season. He has worked to make himself an offensive threat. He is tied for second on the team with three goals in five games. Junior Max Curtusan will round out the defensive alignment. His size and toughness around the net should help out against the HarCo forwards. The young defenders getting to play significant minutes against HarCo will be a good barometer of how much they have improved since the off-ice preseason practices began in August.

For HarCo their defensive will be up in the air as well. With games played during Thanksgiving week, and this being a non-conference game, coaching staffs sometimes give additional ice time to students that do not play as much. HarCo has received one goal from a defender all season, ninth grade defender Patrick Hafner. The only other scoring from HarCo’s defense is an assist from ninth grade defender Nathaniel Meissner.

Coming into the season the Upper Montgomery coaching staff knew that offense was going to be a continuing struggle all season long for the Lightning’s junior varsity. Some unexpected scoring has emerged from junior forward Mason Jagoz (5GP, 4G, 1A) including a hat-trick against the DC Stars. Ninth grade forward Tima Zamaray leads the junior varsity in scoring with (5GP, 3G, 3A). Senior team captain Jason Woodman has (5GP, 3A). Sophomore 16U Upper A Max Israfilbek has (4GP, 2G). Upper Montgomery’s goals per game have slowly increased to an average of three goals per game. The team’s overall focus on defense first hockey was to lighten the need to keep pace offensively and score toe to toe with the top teams in the conference. HarCo has one student with more than one point on the season, forward Henry Monks with two goals in two games.

As has been mentioned over and over, the 2025 – 2026 season will be one where the coaching staff is focused on individual student growth and development. With eight incoming junior varsity students, the program is looking for all eight of these students to contribute to the program over the next four seasons. The playing time received this season should 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.

As part of this development, the program has scheduled two non-conference games to provide the junior varsity students with additional game action to continue to develop their skills. How quickly the team develops the necessary defensive habits and rough and tough physical identity will determine how soon the Lightning can threaten the top junior varsity teams in Montgomery County. This season, the team may simply be too young and inexperienced to compete on the defensive end of the ice. The hope is that by the end of the year no program wants to be matched up against the Lightning in the opening round of the junior varsity playoff tournament.

#UML, #Back to Winning, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

Varsity Richard Montgomery Rematch Game Preview

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In an odd scheduling quirk, the Upper Montgomery Lightning play the Richard Montgomery Rockets in back to back games. This Friday’s matchup is back at Cabin John Ice Rink, this time puck drop is earlier at 8:15 pm. It is a matchup of the two programs that were selected to finish as the two lowest ranked teams in the pre-season Montgomery Hockey Conference rankings. Richard Montgomery beat Upper Montgomery last Friday 9-4 and is better than the lowest ranked program. Upper Montgomery certainly is not the worst team in the county when all of the students are present and available to play. Coming off last week’s defeat, the Lightning will be looking for revenge and to turn around the season. After a wonderful opening night victory, the injury bug has impacted the students available to play with Upper Montgomery dropping four consecutive games.

The Lightning enter the matchup on a four game skid since their opening night trashing of the DC Stars. Conversely, the Rockets have now won four straight after their opening night loss. It is a tail of two teams headed in opposite directions. The past several Upper Montgomery collective defensive performances have been difficult to stomach. There have been far too many highly talented forwards skating around with puck possession seemingly doing as they please. Northwest / Quince Orchard senior star center Ethan Custodio 18U AA singlehandedly dismantled Upper Montgomery scoring six goals on the Jaguars way to an unchallenged 9-3 victory. Last week, Rockville / Magruder 16U AA forward Alexander Johnston put home four goals for the Rams. There have been too many breakaways allowed. There have been too many skaters standing in front of the Lightning net without contact. It seems as if every period there are forwards skating wide around the Lightning defense. Upper Montgomery just won’t win playing an up and down style of hockey where offense is the priority. The porous Upper Montgomery team defense has resulted in giving up 32 goals in the past four games, an average of 8 goals per game. The 32 goals allowed is the most given up in the county and it is no surprise that the Lightning find themselves at the bottom of the conference rankings.

Each week, the Lightning have had to cobble together the team’s lineup as upper level students miss playing in the high school game while they are out-of-town with their external travel teams. Now, with three skaters also injured, the team is limited in the number of students available to play. Upper Montgomery only has twenty skaters total in the program. Thus, when students are out of town, options are limited. When the Lightning are playing with less than a full roster, the team’s depth is severely tested as younger students are asked to step into roles that they are unaccustomed to playing. While harmful in the short term, it will yield results in years to come. Another of those weekends is upcoming as the Lightning will be missing the entire top offensive line once again this week.

Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will return after missing the past four weeks. His presence in net should help lower the number of goals given up by the Lightning. Shterenberg opened the season pitching a 25 save shutout against the DC Stars for the first shutout of his varsity career. With Shterenberg having been absent, Upper Montgomery’s three other goalies have all seen action in varsity games.

Last week, in a surprise move, the Rockets started backup netminder Liam Parkinson in goal versus Upper Montgomery. He gave up four goals on fifteen Upper Montgomery shots. Junior 16U Upper A Michael Andrade likely gets the start in goal this week. Andrade, a Walter Johnson student, is the Rockets starting goalie. He comes into the contest against Upper Montgomery with a 2-1 record, a 2.67 goals against average, and an .843 save percentage. He has good range and quick reflexes which allow him to cover a large portion of the goal. If Andrade is out of town with his external travel team, backup Liam Parkinson will again get the call in net.

The Lightning’s defensive pairings will likely not be decided until game time. The pairings may get modified as the game goes on depending upon the score and how the team is playing. What is known is that the Lightning’s leading scorer, and also the leading defensive scorer for all of Montgomery County, and the 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 with (4GP, 3G, 10A). Berkhammer will play at least half the game, as much as his cardio conditioning will permit. After Berkhammer, the Lightning’s other defensive pair will have junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland anchor the left side. Both Berkhammer and Wendland lit the lamp against the Rockets last week. Junior Max Curtusan has returned to a full time roll on defense for the games against the Rockets as the coaching staff looks to have a more physical presence in the front of the net and on the penalty kill. Upper Montgomery’s penalty kill has been atrocious this season. The opposition has scored five powerplay goals with the Lightning only successfully killing off two of the opponents powerplays. This poor performance is even with the powerplay time for the 2025 – 2026 season being reduced to a minute and a half from two minutes.

Richard Montgomery will deploy several experienced defenders in the game. Their top scoring defender is junior 16U AA William Nimijean (5GP, 5G, 4A). He moves the puck very well on outlet passes. Nimijean has played almost exclusively with former 16U Upper A Brody Evans. Evans has scored in all four games that he has played in this season. The Rockets second defensive pairing is no slouch either, very tall space eating senior Ryan Jones plays with ninth grade 14U AAA Elliot Gordon. The Rockets third defensive pairing has sophomore 16U Upper A Franklin Karton playing with senior Samir Wang. The defensive depth that the Rockets have will keep their defenders fresh throughout the game. If the game is close in the third period anticipate that Rockets coach Chris Hinsvark will shorten his bench to put out his top available skaters.

Offensively last Friday evening, the Lightning found a way to score goals, but after the game was well out of reach. The Lightning’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (3GP, 2G, 7A), flanked by fellow senior and last season’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (4GP, 6G, 4A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (3GP, 9G, 3A) have been DOMINANT. All three of these skaters will once again not play on Friday night. The Lightning’s younger students who are being given an opportunity to play more meaningful minutes will need to step up and make an impact. Which students will step up and provide offense without taking away from the team’s defensive game plan?

The Rockets have evenly distributed scoring this season. Senior 18U AA Connor Myers leads Richard Montgomery in scoring with five points (5GP, 4G, 6A). Junior Henry Yang is tied for the lead for the Rockets in assists with six. Ninth grade 14U AAA forward Eric Myers has scored four goals in five games. No other Richard Montgomery forward has more than two goals or four points on the season. But, don’t let that fool you. Senior Bennett Parisi is on an 18U AA team. The Rockets also have two 14U AAA skaters among them Alexander Nimijean. Hopefully, several of these students will be out-of-town with their external travel teams.

The only way Upper Montgomery will consistently win games is by being buttoned up on the defensive end of the ice. The third period of the Silver Spring game followed up by the extremely poor defensive outings against Northwest / Quince Orchard, Rockville / Magruder, and this same Richard Montgomery squad last week clearly demonstrates that if Upper Montgomery deviates from the defensive style of play that will make the team effective, then the game’s end result will continue to look pre-determined. It’s not always about the outcome of the game, but how the game is played. Generally speaking, when the game is played the correct way, the results tend to follow. If Upper Montgomery does the job in its own end of the ice, the team will get back on the winning track. It will be up to the students to put in the necessary defensive effort to get the job done.

#Back on Track, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

Custodio Single Handedly Destroys the Lightning

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Northwest / Quince Orchard senior 18U AA center Ethan Custodio has long been a thorn in the side of the Upper Montgomery Lightning. Although it had been five years since the Jaguars were last victorious over the Lightning, he had peppered the score sheet for years in losing efforts. Last season, he had three points in each of the team’s three matchups, all Upper Montgomery wins. On Friday night at the Rockville Ice Arena, Custodio exploded for six goals while adding an assist as he singlehandedly carried the Jaguars to a convincing 9-3 victory over a shell shocked Lightning squad. The second straight loss for Upper Montgomery dropped the team’s record to 1-2 on the young season.

The game saw a brief return to the net of Upper Montgomery starting goalie junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg. He was able to play the first period before heading out of town with his external travel team. The chaos of arriving from his external travel team’s practice, then knowing he was going to have to leave the crease early seemed to unsettle Shterenberg. His play was not as sharp as his first game this season, a 25 save opening night shutout of the DC Stars.

The Lightning students appeared sluggish out of the gate. The first half of the opening period saw no scoring. While the Jaguars were able to put shots on net and make it difficult for Upper Montgomery to cleanly break out of the defensive zone, when in the offensive zone the Lightning consistently misfired shots wide of the net or high over the net. There were also long sequences of offensive zone time for the Lightning with no shots being fired at Northwest / Quince Orchard sophomore goalie Sean Wyatt.

Custodio started the scoring with his ninth goal of the season to put the Jaguars up 1-0. Upper Montgomery had possession of the puck behind the Northwest / Quince Orchard net. A centering pass to the slot was intercepted by Custodio. He shot straight up ice on a two on one rush with Jaguars ninth grade forward Nicholas Berl. Custodio went straight into the Lightning’s defensive zone shaded by Upper Montgomery sophomore defender Matt Rivera. Custodio used leverage to go around the outside of the left faceoff circle before cutting in alone on Shterenberg. The netminder made the initial save on Custodio’s backhanded stuff attempt putting the puck into the right corner. The Lightning tried to skate the puck out of the defensive zone rather than just flop the puck up in the air back down the ice. Jaguars forward Amir Karimov caused a turnover by getting in the way of the stickhandling. The puck squirted over to Custodio who fired a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle low past Shterenberg’s stick and blocker into the far side of the net.

If Upper Montgomery was angry about being down by a goal, the students sure did not play like it. Under two minutes later, the deficit increased as Karimov scored his first goal of the season. The Lightning failed to clear the puck from their defensive zone. The puck was kept in at the right point by Jaguars defender, senior 18U AA Roman Martin. Martin dropped the puck down the right wing boards behind the net to Berl. Berl shoveled the puck further to Custodio standing in the left corner. Custodio reversed course and took the puck back around the net from left to right. Clearing the right goal post, he fed the puck back to the right point to Martin. Martin’s long range wrist shot was deflected by Upper Montgomery senior 18U AAA center, team captain Owen Robbins with the puck landing at the right side of the crease near Berl. Berl’s close in shot was a chest save made by a lunging Shterenberg. The puck bounced to the goalie’s left into the goal crease. With very little defensive pressure, Karimov tapped the puck forward a foot or so into the empty net.

As the period wound down to a minute remaining, Upper Montgomery clawed back to within one goal. Robbins stole the puck in the neutral zone before sending it wide to ninth grade 16U AA forward Miles Gleason, the county’s top goal scorer entering the contest. Gleason dragged the puck into the Northwest / Quince Orchard defensive zone down the right wing boards. At the outside of the right faceoff circle the puck was stolen by a Jaguars defender. Almost immediately, Robbins stole the puck back to regain possession for Upper Montgomery. Robbins dumped the puck into the empty right corner looking for Gleason. Gleason and Lightning senior forward Philip Shkeda interchanged with Shkeda taking the puck on the sideboards. Shkeda passed the puck to the middle slot looking for Gleason who was tied up and thus unable to get off a shot. Robbins grabbed the loose puck and sent it back to the left point for Lightning 18U AA defender Brady Berkhammer, the county’s leading defensive scorer. Berkhammer’s long range wrist shot went high to Wyatt’s glove hand. With Shkeda in front causing a distraction, the Jaguars goalie did not appear to track the shot before it landed in the top right corner of the net. It was Berkhammer’s first goal of the season to go along with his nine assists. Both Upper Montgomery and Northwest / Quince Orchard were credited with twelve shots on goal in the first period although Upper Montgomery had many more shot attempts that were not on net.

With the start of the second period, Lightning ninth grade goalie Stephen Rickman entered the game. For the first several minutes of the second period it looked like the game was going to be a battle to see if either team was going to press the attack. Four and a half minutes into the middle period, Lightning senior forward Jason Woodman was called for a slashing minor penalty. Three seconds later, off the powerplay’s opening faceoff, Custodio was at it again scoring his county leading tenth goal of the season. In the left faceoff circle Custodio won the faceoff forward. He stepped around Robbins gaining possession of the puck in the lower left faceoff circle. He went straight to the net through the crease. Untouched by the other three Lightning skaters he faked to his backhand going around the outstretched left leg pad of Rickman. It was a breakaway generated from the left faceoff circle with no Upper Montgomery skater making Custodio’s charge to the net more difficult.

Just after Custodio put the Jaguars up 3-1, Northwest / Quince Orchard defender Andrew Isaacson was called for his own slashing minor penalty. Instead of it turning into a great opportunity for the Lightning to get back into the game, Custodio registered his hat-trick goal scoring an unassisted shorthanded goal for his eleventh goal of the year. With the Lightning on the powerplay, from a faceoff in the left faceoff in the offensive zone, Robbins won the draw to the left wing boards to Gleason. Custodio stole the puck with the Lightning skaters all headed toward the Northwest / Quince Orchard net. He was off on a breakaway from his own defensive blue line. He skated up the right side of the ice before cutting to the middle. Coming down the slot all alone on Rickman, Custodio again faked to his backhand and slid the puck just past the young goaltender who almost made the save at the right post.

Four minutes later Custodio scored yet again to push the Jaguars to a 5-1 lead with his fourth goal of the night and twelfth of the season. The puck was deep in the Northwest / Quince Orchard defensive zone in the left corner. The puck was chipped out to center ice by the Jaguars defense. Lightning 16U Upper A junior defender Miles Wendland got to the puck first to disrupt the initial danger. He move the puck forward toward the blue line where is was taken by Jaguars forward Brennan Dorman. Dorman sent a backhand pass to the slot for Berl. Berl’s spinning shot went wide of the net where it bounced off the back boards before shooting back to the bottom of the left faceoff circle. Guess who was there? With Rickman rotating to the opposite side of the net the goalie had no chance as Custodio had the entire left side of the net open to easily tuck the puck into the near side.

With a half a minute left in the second period, Custodio finished off his four goal period. With the puck in the left corner of the defensive zone, it was swiped by Martin. Martin sent the puck around the right wing boards for Berl. His outlet pass for Custodio split both Upper Montgomery defenders in the neutral zone. Custodio went down the slot with Berkhammer draped all over him, hooking him from behind. Yet again, Custodio went forehand, then backhand along the ice past Rickman. Custodio dominated the period in which Northwest / Quince Orchard outshot Upper Montgomery ten to three.

Down 6-1 entering the third period, Upper Montgomery only had to look back to last week for inspiration. Silver Spring was in a similar predicament before rallying to topple the Lightning. Right away, things began to look up. Two minutes into the third period, Lightning junior forward Mason Jagoz scored his first career high school varsity goal. After a Northwest / Quince Orchard defensive zone clear, Wendland retreated into his own defensive zone with the puck. He sent the puck up ice to Upper Montgomery 16U Upper A junior forward Aiden Zheng. Zheng cut across the ice in the neutral zone from the middle to the right wing where he entered the Jaguars defensive zone. Looking to create offense he brought the puck around the net from right to left. Clearing the back of the net he sent the puck back to Berkhammer at the left point. Berkhammer’s wrist shot went between Wyatt’s legs five hole stopping behind the goalie but not over the goal line. Jagoz was standing in the slot. He reached forward with his stick poking the puck hard enough to get it across the goal line for the Lightning’s second goal of the evening.

Upper Montgomery could not build off of the momentum that Jagoz’s goal provided. Four minutes later Northwest / Quince Orchard went back on the powerplay when Rivera was called for a tripping penalty with eight and a half minutes remaining. This time, it took the Jaguars all of ten seconds to score on the powerplay. Custodio won the faceoff from the left faceoff circle back to Martin at the left point. Martin paused for a second allowing traffic to move to the front of the net. He then sent a rising wrister that went high over Rickman’s glove hand to the top right corner of the net for his third goal of the season. It was 7-2 in favor of Northwest / Quince Orchard. Five seconds later Custodio put the cherry on top. From the faceoff at center ice, he won the draw forward. Once again he split the Upper Montgomery defense. Coming in alone on Rickman for the umpteenth time, he used his patented forehand to backhand fake to pot his sixth goal of the game and fourteenth of the season.

Down 8-2 with eight minutes remaining, the game was into running clock. The Lightning coaching staff began to play students who don’t regularly receive much varsity playing time. With just over two and a half minutes left in the game, Berkhammer scored his second goal of the game and season to increase his season points total to twelve in just three games. Zheng grabbed the puck deep in the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. He took the puck behind the net beginning to skate up the right wing boards out of the Lightning’s defensive zone. He layered a pass forward for Woodman in the neutral zone. Woodman advanced the puck to the Jaguars defensive zone on the right wing. He fought through a check along the boards. From the right wing circle he fired a weak wrist shot on net that was saved by Wyatt. The puck was sent by Martin up to the left point where Berkhammer stepped in to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Berkhammer’s slapshot was blocked right back to him in the left faceoff circle. He took the puck around the net from left to right coming out in front with a wrap around chance. Wyatt just barely got over to the right goal post to make the save with the puck following Berkhammer to the bottom of the right faceoff circle. From a bad angle, he wasted no time firing a wrist shot high to the far side of the net to provide Upper Montgomery’s third tally.

With a minute remaining, Jaguars ninth grade forward Kuba Okrasa finished off the scoring with his first career high school varsity goal. Upper Montgomery had the puck in their defensive zone. The puck was played from the left corner behind the net to the right corner. Berl stopped the puck putting it deeper into the corner. He fought with Robbins for control of the puck coming away from the corner battle with possession. Berl centered the puck to Okrasa at the inside right edge of the left faceoff circle. Okrasa fired a wrist shot short side high over Rickman’s stick and blocker.

The 9-3 blowout loss was disheartening. Somehow, over the past four periods of hockey, Upper Montgomery completely deviated from the necessary defensive style of play that the Lightning used very effectively to create a blowout victory over the DC Stars, and what should have been a second straight blowout victory over Silver Spring. Now, the Lightning have reverted to giving up far too much time and space to the opponents. This lack of team defense has led to far too many breakaways against the Lightning’s goalies. The loss to Northwest / Quince Orchard was all due to lack of playing within the Lightning’s defensive structure of play. While Custodio had much to do with the outcome of the game, it was the Lightning who allowed Custodio to be the dominant offensive force.

Game Notes:

  • Upper Montgomery was outshot by Northwest / Quince Orchard 33-27 for the game.
  • Upper Montgomery gave up six goals to Ethan Custodio in the game. It is the first time in over six seasons that one student scored that many goals against Upper Montgomery.
  • Upper Montgomery senior defender Brady Berkhammer scored two goals and added an assist. It is his third straight game with three or more points.
  • Berkhammer leads the Montgomery Hockey Conference in assists with ten over three games and in defensive scoring with twelve points.
  • Lightning junior forward Mason Jagoz scored his first career varsity goal.
  • Upper Montgomery ninth grade goalie Stephen Rickman saw his first career varsity action in net.
  • Lightning ninth grade defender Dylan Kim and ninth grade forward Nolan Veillette saw their first career varsity game action.
  • Upper Montgomery returns to the ice next Friday evening for a late night tilt against Rockville / Magruder. Game time is 10:00 pm at the Cabin John Ice Rink.

Three Stars of the Game:

First Star—Ethan Custodio—Northwest / Quince Orchard Center—6 Goals, 1 Assist
Second Star—Nicholas Berl—Northwest / Quince Orchard Forward—3 Assists
Third Star—Brady Berkhammer—Upper Montgomery Defense—2 Goals, 1 Assist

Varsity Richard Montgomery Game Preview

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The young Upper Montgomery Lightning return to action this upcoming Friday night against the Richard Montgomery Rockets. It is another late night for the Lightning who are playing in the 10:00 pm ice slot at Cabin John Ice Rink for the second consecutive week. It is a matchup of the two programs that were selected to finish as the two lowest ranked teams in the pre-season Montgomery Hockey Conference rankings. Richard Montgomery may be better than the lowest ranked program. Upper Montgomery certainly is when all of the students are present and available to play.

The Lightning enter the matchup on a three game skid since their opening night trashing of the DC Stars. Conversely, the Rockets have won two straight after their opening night loss. The past several Upper Montgomery collective defensive performances have been difficult to stomach. There have been far too many highly talented forwards skating around with puck possession seemingly doing as they please. Northwest / Quince Orchard senior star center Ethan Custodio 18U AA singlehandedly dismantled Upper Montgomery scoring six goals on the Jaguars way to an unchallenged 9-3 victory. Last week, Rockville / Magruder 16U AA forward Alexander Johnston put home four goals for the Rams. There have been too many breakaways allowed. There have been too many skaters standing in front of the Lightning net without contact. It seems as if every period there are forwards skating wide around the Lightning defense. Upper Montgomery just won’t win playing an up and down style of hockey where offense is the priority. The porous Upper Montgomery team defense has resulted in giving up 23 goals in the past three games, an average of 7.66 per game. Needless to say, the focus this week will be on defense or students may their playing time decreased.

Each week, the Lightning have had to cobble together the team’s lineup as upper level students miss playing in the high school game while they are out-of-town with their external travel teams. Now, with three skaters also injured, the team is limited in the number of students available to play. Upper Montgomery only has twenty skaters total in the program. Thus, when students are out of town, options are limited. When the Lightning are playing with less than a full roster, the team’s depth is severely tested as younger students are asked to step into roles that they are unaccustomed to playing. While harmful in the short term, it will yield results in years to come. Another of those weekends is upcoming as the Lightning will be missing several top end students once again this week.

Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will miss the game as he did last week with his external travel team being out of town. Shterenberg opened the season pitching a 25 save shutout against the DC Stars for the first shutout of his varsity career. With Shterenberg absent, Upper Montgomery’s primary junior varsity goalie, sophomore 16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons will get the start. He stepped in against Silver Spring playing well during the first two periods of action before the wheels came off in the third period. The coaching staff anticipates Stutsrim-Lyons will be motivated to play extremely well in his return to the net in varsity action.

The Rockets will start junior 16U Upper A Michael Andrade in goal. Andrade, a Walter Johnson student, is the Rockets starting goalie. He comes into the contest against Upper Montgomery with a 1-1 record, a 3.50 goals against average, and a .794 save percentage. He has good range and quick reflexes which allow him to cover a large portion of the goal. If Andrade is out of town with his external travel team, backup Liam Parkinson will get the call in net. Parkinson shut out Rockville / Magruder without their two star forwards in his only game this season.

The Lightning’s defensive pairings will likely not be decided until game time. The pairing may get modified as the game goes on depending upon the score and how the team is playing. What is known is that the Lightning’s leading scorer, and also the leading defensive scorer for all of Montgomery County, and the 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 with (4GP, 3G, 10A). Berkhammer will play at least half the game, as much as his cardio conditioning will permit. After Berkhammer, the Lightning’s other defensive pair will have junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland anchor the left side. Junior Max Curtusan will return to a full time roll on defense for the game against the Rockets as the coaching staff looks to have a more physical presence in the front of the net and on the penalty kill. Upper Montgomery’s penalty kill has been atrocious this season. The opposition has scored four powerplay goals with the Lightning only successfully killing off two of the opponents powerplays. This poor performance is even with the powerplay time for the 2025 – 2026 season being reduced to a minute and a half from two minutes.

Richard Montgomery will deploy several experienced defenders in the game. Their top scoring defender is junior 16U AA William Nimijean (3GP, 2G, 2A). He moves the puck very well on outlet passes. Nimijean has played almost exclusively with former 16U Upper A Brody Evans. Evans has scored in both games that he has played in this season. The Rockets second defensive pairing is no slouch either, very tall space eating senior Ryan Jones plays with ninth grade 14U AAA Elliot Gordon. The Rockets third defensive pairing has sophomore 16U Upper A Franklin Karton playing with senior Samir Wang. The defensive depth that the Rockets have will keep their defenders fresh throughout the game. If the game is close in the third period anticipate that Rockets coach Chris Hinsvark will shorten his bench to put out his top available skaters.

On Friday evening, offensively, the Lightning may be hard pressed to score. Only one forward outside of Upper Montgomery’s top line has scored this season, junior Mason Jagoz. The Lightning’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (3GP, 2G, 7A), flanked by fellow senior and last season’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (4GP, 6G, 4A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (3GP, 9G, 3A) have been DOMINANT. All three of these skaters will not play on Friday night. The entire Upper Montgomery roster will be dressed for this game and again next week in the back to back rematch versus Richard Montgomery. The Lightning’s younger students who are being given an opportunity to play more meaningful minutes will need to step up and make an impact. Which students will step up and provide offense without taking away from the team’s defensive game plan?

The Rockets have evenly distributed scoring this season. Senior 18U AA Connor Myers leads Richard Montgomery in scoring with five points (3GP, 2G, 3A). Junior Henry Yang leads the Rockets in assists with four. Senior Connor Rosier has scored twice in three games. No other Richard Montgomery forward has more than one goal or two points on the season. But, don’t let that fool you. Senior Bennett Parisi is on an 18U AA team. The Rockets also have two 14U AAA forwards in Eric Myers and Alexander Nimijean. Hopefully, several of these students will be out-of-town with their external travel teams.

The only way Upper Montgomery will consistently win games is by being buttoned up on the defensive end of the ice. The third period of the Silver Spring game followed up by two poor defensive outings against Northwest / Quince Orchard and Rockville / Magruder clearly demonstrates that if Upper Montgomery deviates from the style of play that will make the team effective, then the game’s end result will continue to look pre-determined. It’s not always about the outcome of the game, but how the game is played. Generally speaking, when the game is played the correct way, the results tend to follow.

#Back on Track, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!

Lightning Junior Varsity Finds Offense, Forgets About Defensive Responsibilities

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The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity found some offensive flair on Friday afternoon against the combined Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton team. Unfortunately, defensive breakdowns doomed the team in a 7-4 defeat. Three separate times, Upper Montgomery came back from an early deficit to cut the combined team’s lead to one goal. Each time, a defensive breakdown led to the next Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton score. With the loss the Lightning dropped to 1-4 on the season having lost to four of the top six teams in the conference standings. Upper Montgomery will need to get back on track over the second half of the season to qualify for the junior varsity playoffs. With the win the combined squad increased their record to 5-1.

The first couple of shifts of the game were difficult for the Lightning as they adjusted to the combined team’s size. At the beginning of the game, Upper Montgomery failed to play with a physical toughness that the coaching staff has instituted since the pre-season off ice practice sessions. It was very evident a minute into the game when an Upper Montgomery defensive clearing attempt was kept in at the right point by defender Eric Anderson. He skated to the middle of the ice along the blue line before passing to forward Kuba Okrasa. Okrasa skated to the bottom of the right faceoff circle where he fired a wrist shot at Upper Montgomery ninth grade goalie Stephen Rickman. Rickman made the save with his body. The puck dropped to the ice with Amir Karimov knocking in the rebound past Rickman to the goalie’s right into the wide open side of the net. No Lightning defender was near Karimov who could not have scored an easier goal for his fourth of the season.

After the early initial goal both teams retreated into a posture of conservation of energy. The Upper Montgomery varsity was playing the Northwest / Quince Orchard Jaguars varsity directly after the conclusion of the junior varsity game. Both teams had several students playing in the junior varsity game that were going to play double duty. With each team playing their defense way back for the rest of the first period, quality scoring chances were limited. The combined team wound up outshooting the Lightning seven to six in the opening period.

Similar to the first period, Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton scored quickly into the second period. Forward Nathan Tian skated from the neutral zone down the right side crossing into the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. At the crease he sent a pass to his left. The puck went all the way through the crease to the left wing boards. After a puck battle ensued, Anderson had possession of the puck at the left point. He attempted to make a move before the puck was knocked off his stick by Lightning ninth grade defender Lenny Roth. The puck squirted over to forward Caeden Yi. His long range shot was saved by Rickman. Tian had inside position on the Upper Montgomery defense. He grabbed the puck, took a step to his right, and pushed the puck past Rickman’s outstretched left leg pad just inside the right post for his fifth goal of the season. The combined team led 2-0 less than three minutes into the second frame.

Four minutes later Roth was in the penalty box after being assessed a minor penalty for interference. Seven seconds later the combined team struck off the faceoff to begin the powerplay. From the right faceoff circle in the offensive zone, Upper Montgomery won the faceoff to the corner. Without taking a second to look at the situation on the ice, the Lightning defense smacked the puck up ice. The puck went to the right point to defender Igor Makarevich. Makarevich took at step to his left to better his angle at the net. He then sent a very weak shot which was heading way wide of the net to the left wing corner. As the puck traveled through the slot it clanked off the skates of Lightning ninth grade forward Nolan Veillette changing direction. The puck deflected directly north into the right side of the net that had been vacated after Rickman moved to his right to prepare to stop Makarevich’s shot. The defender’s unassisted goal was his first career high school goal. It left Upper Montgomery in a 3-0 hole half way through the contest.

Halfway through the game the combined team changed goalies. Northwest / Quince Orchard goalie Sean Wyatt was replaced by Wootton goalie Kevin Yu. On the next shift, Anderson was called for a hooking penalty. At the very end of the powerplay, Upper Montgomery got on the scoreboard. A Lightning scoring threat was repelled by the combined team which then iced the puck down to the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. Team captain, senior Jason Woodman raced back collecting the puck in his own end in the left defensive corner. He passed up to Lightning sophomore Decklin Hughes in neutral ice. Hughes carried the puck into the Upper Montgomery offensive zone down the left wing. With the combined team defense sagging back, Hughes had a clear path to the left faceoff circle. He wound up and fired a slapshot from the lower portion of the left faceoff circle. The puck went to the far side of the net under Yu’s left armpit high into the right corner of the net. For Hughes it was his first goal this season. The powerplay marker closed Upper Montgomery back to within two goals at 3-1.

Two minutes later the Lightning inched closer. A combined team turnover at the offensive blue line sent Upper Montgomery up ice in the opposite direction. The puck was taken by Lightning junior forward Mason Jagoz. He skated down the right wing brushing aside back pressure while entering the offensive zone. From the bottom of the right faceoff circle he shot wide of the far side of the net. The puck landed in the left wing corner, wound around the boards, and was kept in the offensive zone at the left point by Upper Montgomery sophomore defender Matt Rivera. Rivera quickly fired toward the net. His shot was blocked just outside the crease by the combined team defense. Upper Montgomery ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander collected the puck. He took a stride to his right entering the middle of the slot where he unleashed a wrist shot on net. The puck went through Yu’s body seven hole under his left glove hand and arm to the right side of the net. Ostrander’s first career high school goal closed the combined team’s lead to 3-2 with just under four minutes remaining in the second period.

Forty seconds later, the combined team extended their lead to 4-2. Upper Montgomery had the puck in their own defensive zone. The team headed up the right wing side of the ice but the puck did not exit the defensive zone. Wootton defender Isaac Greene, the combined team’s most skilled student kept the puck in the zone before heading down the left wing boards. He cut to the crease around the Upper Montgomery defense. Going across the crease he went to his backhand sliding the puck past Rickman’s extended left leg at the far goal post for his sixth goal of the season. The second period closed with the combined team up 4-2, having outshot Upper Montgomery thirteen to seven.

Upper Montgomery seemingly found another burst of energy to begin the third period. Two and a half minutes into the third period, the Lightning fought back being down by only one goal once again at 4-3. The combined team sent the puck to the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. Lightning ninth grade defender Dylan Kim took the puck behind the net from the right to the left. He dished up the right wing boards to Ostrander. Ostrander carried the puck down ice along the right wing into the Lightning offensive zone. At the top of the right wing faceoff circle he cut to the middle into the slot where he fired a wrist shot on net. Yu made the save with the rebound shooting back out into the slot. Jagoz shot the rebound low along the ice to the left side of the net. The shot entered just inside the left goal post out of the reach of Yu’s right left pad. Jagoz’s fourth goal of the season gave the Lightning additional spirit trailing once again by just one goal with plenty of time remaining in the third period.

Just over a minute later, Greene scored his second unassisted goal of the game, his seventh of the season to take the combined team’s lead back to a two goal bulge at 5-3. After Upper Montgomery cleared the puck down ice, Greene had the puck in his own defensive zone along the left wing boards. Greene skated up ice through the neutral zone and into the Lightning defensive zone. He went around a flat footed Upper Montgomery defender. With a clear path to the net he went in directly at Rickman. Woodman came over from his left defender position laying a massive hit on Greene just as he was firing on net. Greene and Woodman both went flying as a result of the collision. The puck that Greene had shot went into the net five hole on Rickman. Greene took the brunt of the contact and was uninjured on the play. The hit left Woodman laying on the ice for some time. While he pleaded to return to the game, the Upper Montgomery coaching staff held him out for precautionary measures.

Thirteen seconds later off the center ice faceoff, Upper Montgomery was right back in the game. Hughes won the faceoff to his right with ninth grade forward Tima Zamaray jumping to the inside to gain possession of the puck. Zamaray took a circuitous route from the right side of the center ice circle into the offensive zone down the left wing outside the faceoff circle. He took the puck deep into the corner then around the net from the left to the right side of the ice. Advancing north of the goal line extended, with the puck on his forehand, he slammed the puck inside the right goal post and Yu’s left skate for a pretty wrap around goal, his third of the season. With eleven minutes remaining in the game, Zamaray’s goal pushed Upper Montgomery back to within one goal for the third consecutive sequence.

Upper Montgomery began rushing the puck up ice with skaters flying to the crease looking for the tying goal. Over the next four minutes several good Lightning scoring chances were blocked in front of the net. Then, with the puck at center ice along the far boards the teams fought for possession. The puck was taken by Wootton center Joseph Davis. He advanced up the right wing boards into the Upper Montgomery defensive zone. From the right faceoff circle he fired an innocent looking wrist shot at Rickman to the short side. Rickman did not pick up the puck as it went past his catching glove hand into the net for Davis’ first goal of the season. It was a goal that the young goalie would believe he should have stopped. The familiar swapping of goals continued with the combined team restoring it’s two goal margin at 6-4.

Two minutes later the Lightning were provided an excellent chance to get back to within one goal when defender Wilson Dong was called for a roughing penalty. Upper Montgomery went back on the powerplay looking to give itself an opportunity to claw back once again. From the right faceoff circle in the offensive zone, Davis won the faceoff to open the powerplay. He pushed the puck forward beating the Upper Montgomery defense to the puck before skating up ice out of his defensive zone. He continued through the neutral zone. At the Upper Montgomery defensive blue line he cut in between both Lightning defenders. Neither defender took the body allowing Davis to skate right through them. Coming in on Rickman he lost control of the puck before reaching out his stick to poke at the puck. His backhand connected with the puck sending it forward toward the crease. The puck slid under Rickman’s leg pads for his second straight goal, this one a shorthanded marker. Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton was up by three goals at 7-4 with four minutes left in regulation. The shorthanded goal took the fight out of the Lightning who had extended so much energy to get back into the game time after time.

The Lightning junior varsity continues to improve each week as the season has gone along. The schedule that Upper Montgomery has faced is has been very tough. The combined records of the teams that have beaten the Lightning are 18-5-1. After a short break, up next for Upper Montgomery will be a non-conference matchup against Harford County. For Upper Montgomery to be successful, the team will need to return to the strong physical style that has worked to keep the faster more skilled teams at bay. The Lightning have been competitive in every game for long stretches of play before the youth of the team gets exploited. A couple of wins over the second half of the season before the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoff begin will be a big boost for the team.

Game Notes:

  • The combined Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton team outshot Upper Montgomery 29-21 during the game.
  • Upper Montgomery ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander scored his first career high school goal.
  • Upper Montgomery junior forward Mason Jagoz scored his team leading fourth goal of the season.
  • Upper Montgomery had three students with a goal and an assist; Decklin Hughes, Mason Jagoz, and Wyatt Ostrander.
  • Lightning ninth grade goalie Stephen Rickman made his first career start for the team.
  • The Lightning gave up their first shorthanded goal of the season.
  • The Upper Montgomery junior varsity has a short break before returning to play a non-conference game against Harford County. Game time is 4:40 pm at Ice World in Abington, Maryland, on Monday, afternoon November 24th.

Three Stars of the Game:

First Star—Isaac Greene—Wootton Defense—2 Goals
Second Star—Wyatt Ostrander—Upper Montgomery Center—1 Goal, 1 Assist
Third Star—Eric Anderson—Wootton Defense—2 Assists