Category: Game Previews

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity squad returns to action on Friday evening, late night against the Rockville / Magruder Rams. Game time is 10:00 pm at Cabin John Ice Rink. The Lightning are coming off of a ghoulish performance on Halloween where Northwest / Quince Orchard star senior center Ethan Custodio singlehandedly dismantled Upper Montgomery scoring seven goals on the Jaguars way to an unchallenged 9-3 victory. It is the first win for Northwest / Quince Orchard over Upper Montgomery in five seasons. The Lightning played five excellent periods to begin the season outscoring the DC Stars and Silver Spring by a fourteen to two margin. In the last four periods, Upper Montgomery has played extremely porous team defense. Silver Spring and Northwest / Quince Orchard have chewed up the Lightning to a tune of fifteen goals scored to only four markers for the Lightning. Needless to say, the focus this week in practice was on the defensive side of the puck.

Each week, the Lightning will have to cobble together the team’s lineup as upper level students will miss playing in the high school games while they are out-of-town with their external travel teams. 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 play. One 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 two weeks ago 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 stepped in against Silver Spring and played well during the first two periods of action. He may also miss this week’s action leaving the Lightning coaching staff to dress the two ninth grade junior varsity goalies in the program, Stephen Rickman and George Schickler. Rickman received his initial taste of varsity competition last week against the Jaguars playing the second and third periods. His biggest save was stonewalling Custodio on a clear breakaway.

Rockville / Magruder is expected to start ninth grade 16U AA goalie Ethan Rabinovitch. Rabinovitch has started all three games for the Rams. He carries into the contest against Upper Montgomery a 1-1-1 record, a 4.00 goals against average, and a .900 save percentage. He has good range and quick reflexes which allows him to cover a large portion of the goal. One of the largest changes for the Rams this season is on defense where star seniors defenders Andrew Pfeufer and Aiden Ward no longer patrol the backline. Their departure has left Rabinovitch playing behind a less impressive defensive corps which has hurt his goals against average.

On defense, the Lightning will role with more than the three primary defenders that suited up against Northwest / Quince Orchard. Like has been discussed each week, it might get to the point where all forwards take shifts on defense to spread out the ice time. The Lightning’s leading defensive 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 (3GP, 2G, 9A). Last season, he led the Lightning in assists with fifteen. He is right back at it again this season.

Berkhammer will need to play a very strong game against the Rams to make up for the uncertain goalie situation. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera fared pretty well against the DC Stars playing almost exclusively with Berkhammer. Look for that pairing to be put back together for the game against the Rams. Lightning junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland 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. Sophomore 16U AA defender Lillian Robbins returns to action for the fist time in two weeks. She will provide balance playing with Wendland. Robbins is also one of the Lightning’s top penalty killers so her return will help out a unit that has struggled since the season opener. Anticipate junior Max Curtusan receiving shifts on defense to allow some of the other students to catch their breath. He will also likely play forward for several shifts as well. The defensive will have to pay specific attention on Rockville / Magruder’s top high scoring forwards.

The Rams leading returning defender is senior 18U Upper A Max Yuen. Yuen is a wide bodied defender that the Lightning can take advantage of with team speed down the wings. Sophomore 16U Lower A Lukas Aagaard has a lot of varsity experience for playing in just his second year of high school hockey. He will likely play a significant amount paired with Rams senior defender 18U Upper A Lincoln Herrick. Sophomore 16U AA Evelyn May, and juniors David Schanzer and Carder Wilcox will see action spread throughout the game.

Offensively, the Lightning coaches figured the team would have a tough time scoring this season. Well, that assumption went out the window after Upper Montgomery led the county in scoring at 7.5 goals per game through the first two weeks of the season. If they play up to their standards, Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (2GP, 1G, 5A), flanked by fellow senior and last year’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (3GP, 5G, 2A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (3GP, 9G, 3A) have been DOMINANT. Along with Berkhammer, these four students have scored all but one of the Lightning’s goals so far this season. Both Gleason and Shkeda scored hat-tricks against the Stars. Gleason followed up his week one performance with five goals and an assist in week two. Shkeda was no slouch either chipping in with two goals and two assists versus the Blazers. The balance of the forward lines will need to do their job playing more defensive, recognizing when the Rams top skilled students are on the ice, and playing a tough physical style of hockey. The Lightning’s younger students who are being given an opportunity to play more will need to step up and make an impact like Mason Jagoz did last week when he scored his first career high school varsity goal against Northwest / Quince Orchard.

Unlike last week’s game where Northwest / Quince Orchard super talent senior 18U AA center Ethan Custodio single handled destroyed the game, Rockville / Magruder scores by committee. Sophomore 16U AA Alexander Johnston played last week for the first time this season. He scored a hat-trick against Silver Spring in his season debut. After playing in his only game, he leads the Rams in scoring with those three points. Fellow sophomore, 16U AAA Cameron Gifford has yet to suit up for the Rams this season. He has the ability to be a game wrecker. Lets hope his external travel team is out-of-town this weekend. He hurt Upper Montgomery in both games played last season. He had a four point game with a hat-trick and an assist in the first game. Gifford scored with one second left in regulation with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker to allow Rockville / Magruder to scrape away with a tie. In the rematch, he scored four goals to help propel the Rams third period comeback victory over the Lightning.

No other Rams forward has more than one goal or two points on the season. However, Rockville / Magruder possesses several student athletes who have had a fair amount of varsity experience led by senior 18U AA Toyin Okunseinde, junior 16U Upper A Ryan Hurley, senior 18U Upper A Ari Solomon, senior Adam Salomon, and junior 16U Upper A Rowen Pierson. Upper Montgomery is preparing for all of these forwards to play alongside the Rams two offensive talents.

While all seems good momentarily on the offensive side of the house, the only way that 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 Northwest / Quince Orchard game clearly demonstrated that if Upper Montgomery deviates from the style of play that makes the team effective, then the game’s end result could look scary. The Lightning should be well versed in playing with a short roster. The experienced students need to lead by example willing the team to victory. Hopefully, when the clock strikes midnight on Friday, the squad’s record is back to even at 2-2.

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

The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity squad is on the hunt for redemption this upcoming Friday night, Halloween when the team faces off against the Northwest / Quince Orchard Jaguars. Game time is 6:40 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. The Lightning still have a bad taste in their mouth resulting from giving away a five goal lead late in the second period before succumbing to the Silver Spring Blazers 8-7 last Friday evening. The Blazers winning goal was scored with less than four seconds remaining in the contest. Offensively, over the majority of the game, Upper Montgomery’s top line once again exploded through the opponent. The top line with contributions from defender Brady Berkhammer have scored fifteen goals in two games. These performances have made the other programs in the Montgomery Hockey Conference take notice. The Lightning were ranked as the second to last team in the conference preseason rankings. Now, after two weeks of conference play, Upper Montgomery leads the entire county in goals scored and is seemingly much better than several programs.

Each week, the Lightning will have to cobble together the team’s lineup as upper level students will miss playing in the high school games while they are out-of-town with their external travel teams. When the Lightning are playing with less than a full roster, the team’s depth will be severely tested. One of the more interesting components of this week’s high school action is that there is no school in Montgomery County on the Monday following the weekend. Thus, many travel teams are away at out-of-area tournaments this weekend. Additionally, families may be leaving town for the long three day weekend. So, maybe the primary key to the contest is which student athletes are actually in town and available to play in the game.

Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will play part of the game against the Jaguars before he departs town with his external travel team. Shterenberg opened the season pitching a 25 save shutout against the 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 stepped in last week and played very well for two periods. The entire team broke down in the third period where the Lightning gave up six goals, including four in the last four minutes of action. With Stutsrim-Lyons not slated to play in the junior varsity game against the Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton combined junior varsity team, he may get the call to play the remainder of the varsity game. Otherwise, one of the Lightning’s two junior varsity ninth grade goalie will be in net playing the remainder of the varsity game.

Northwest / Quince Orchard will start sophomore 16U Lower A goalie Sean Wyatt as he is the only goalie on their roster. The biggest issue is whether Wyatt will also be playing in the junior varsity game directly prior. Wyatt has played in both of the Jaguars varsity games suffering the two losses. The Jaguars are much more competitive this year than in seasons past. They opened the season losing by one goal (4-3) to Rockville / Magruder. Last week, they scored eight goals but fell to the DC Stars 10-8. Wyatt has fared much better at the junior varsity level where he is 2-0, with a 1.88 goals against average, and a .919 save percentage. Upper Montgomery will be trying to repeat their scoring barrage from the past couple of weeks to prove the fifteen goals was not just an early season flourish but performances that can be matched week in and week out.

On defense, the Lightning will role with maybe three possibly four defenders. It might get to the point where all forwards take shifts on defense to spread out the ice time. The Lightning’s leading defensive scorer, 18U AA senior Brady Berkhammer should return to lead the Lightning’s backline. He suffered an upper body injury last weekend with his external travel team and is listed as day to day. He has been exceedingly good so far this season with nine assists over his first two games. Last season, he led the Lightning in assists with fifteen. He is right back at it again this season. Berkhammer will need to play a very strong game against the Jaguars to make up for Lillian Robbins missing the game due to being out-of-town with her external travel team. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera fared pretty well against the DC Stars playing almost exclusively with Berkhammer. He has played much more confidently this season in the Lightning’s junior varsity games and during practice. He will see plenty of ice time once again against Northwest / Quince Orchard. Lightning junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland has taken on a larger role this season. The team’s alternate captain is a steady, smooth skating defender. Wendland is rarely caught out of position. A challenge for the lanky defender will be bodying up and playing in the Lightning’s new more physical defensive style. In this game the defensive focus will be on shutting down the Jaguars leading scorer senior 18U AA Ethan Custodio. With the Lightning having the last line change, expect that Custodio will be forced to play entirely against students at his own level or better. The powerful offensive focus of Upper Montgomery’s first line will challenge Custodio to play defense himself or allow the Lightning to skate up and down the ice with constant odd skater chances.

The Jaguars leading returning defender is senior former 18U AA Roman Martin. Martin is the Jaguars second leading scorer (2GP, 2G, 1A). Martin has scored in each of the Northwest / Quince Orchard’s first two games. The Lightning 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. 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. Upper Montgomery leads the county in scoring at 7.5 goals per game. If they play up to their standards, Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (1GP, 1G, 4A), flanked by fellow senior and last year’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (2GP, 5G, 2A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (2GP, 9G, 3A) have been DOMINANT. The line has scored all fifteen of the Lightning’s goals. Robbins returns to the lineup after missing the Silver Spring game as he was out of town with his external travel team. His absence forced the coaching staff to shuffle lines last week with ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander contributing two assists filling in for Robbins. Both Gleason and Shkeda scored hat-tricks against the Stars. Gleason followed up his week one performance with five goals and an assist in week two. Shkeda had two goals and two assists versus the Blazers. The balance of the forward lines will need to do their jobs playing a more defensive style, recognizing when Custodio is on the ice, making quick line changes, and preventing goals at all costs.

Unlike last week’s game where Silver Spring scored by committee, ALL of the Northwest / Quince Orchard offense will originate and go through Custodio. While this season he is second in the county behind Gleason in goals scored (2GP, 8G, 1A), last year he produced (13GP, 20G, 11A). As a sophomore he scored 26 goals. He is bringing it in his final high school season powering past the fifty goals plateau last week qualifying for automatic induction into the Maryland Student Hockey League Hall of Fame. Lightning forwards will have to be aware of getting sucked in too much when Custodio is on the ice giving him the opportunity where he can then act as a distributor to wide open Jaguars in front of the Upper Montgomery net. Custodio has a history of scoring three points per game against the Lightning which he did in all three meetings between the teams last season. Young forwards Kuba Okrasa and Nicholas Berl will try and provide Custodio with some offensive support.

Upper Montgomery will not be able to sneak up on teams in the county the rest of the season. Not with having the league’s first (Gleason) and third leading goal scorers (Shkeda), the top two distributors in assists (Berkhammer by far and Robbins), and the first, second, and third leading scorers in points per game (Gleason, Berkhammer, and Robbins). Shkeda must be slouching off because at 3.5 points per game, he is seventh. While all seems good momentarily on the offensive side of the house, the only way that Upper Montgomery will consistently win games is by being buttoned up on the defensive side of the ice. The Northwest / Quince Orchard game will come down to which team is better in their own defensive end of the ice. Will fatigue with low roster sizes impede either team? As the game progresses, will catastrophic mental breakdowns occur as the students tire? Upper Montgomery played through a short roster last week. Hopefully the team is prepared for Friday night’s Halloween tilt where Upper Montgomery looks to make it a scary and ghoulish affair for the visiting squad dressed in black.

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

The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity will face another tough test this weekend against the combined Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton squad. It is the Lightning’s fourth game of the season facing a team that has already banked four victories. Upper Montgomery has played these teams tough so getting a big win is not out of the question. Puck drop is at 5:10 pm on Friday, Halloween afternoon inside Rockville Ice Arena. Of note is that Upper Montgomery and Northwest / Quince Orchard will play a varsity contest directly after the junior varsity game finishes. Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton enters the game with a 4-1 record. However, they have not played as well the past two games since former Lightning forward sophomore 16U Upper A Siddy Bhasin (3GP, 7G, 1A) was promoted to varsity only status. Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton has scored 27 goals in five games, an average of 5.4 goals per game. Upper Montgomery exploded for seven goals against the DC Stars, but otherwise has scored only four goals in its other three games. To remain in the game, the Lightning will once again have to really grind on the defensive end of the ice to stifle Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton’s offensive attack.

Upper Montgomery enters the game coming off of a close loss to Churchill where the Lightning scored two goals into their own net in a 3-1 defeat. A complete 45 minute performance will be necessary to remain competitive throughout the game. One of the more interesting components of this preview is that there is no school in Montgomery County on the Monday following the weekend. Thus, many travel teams are away at out-of-area tournaments this weekend. Additionally, families may be leaving town for the long three day weekend. So, maybe the primary key to the contest is which student athletes are actually in town and available to play in the game.

In net for the Lightning will be one of the team’s ninth grade junior varsity goalies, Stephen Rickman or George Schickler. Depending upon the flow of the game, and which goalie is chosen to start in the varsity game later in the evening, the Lightning coaching staff may play both ninth grade goalies. 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. This past week each made seventeen saves against the Bulldogs. Rickman, in his first appearance of the season for Upper Montgomery, stopped all seventeen shots he faced keeping the Lightning in the game.

Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton also has an interesting dilemma. Both of their goalie options, junior Kevin Yu of Wootton and sophomore Sean Wyatt of Northwest, will be starting their program’s varsity games later that evening. There will be minimal rest in between games. Wootton’s varsity team will be playing archrival Churchill, while Upper Montgomery will be facing Northwest / Quince Orchard. Yu has faced the Lightning junior varsity three times in his career. He is undefeated giving up two goals or less in each game. This season at the junior varsity level he is 2-1 with an elevated 3.86 goals against average and an .871 save percentage. Wyatt has a 2-0 record, a 1.88 goals against average, and a .919 save percentage. Does Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton risk giving the Lightning coaching staff a full game to analyze Wyatt directly before the varsity plays against him?

On defense Friday night, 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 on defense. 16U Lower A defender Matt Rivera has scored on end to end rushes three games in a row. He is tied for the team lead with three goals in four games. The young defenders getting to play significant minutes against Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton will be a good barometer of how much they have improved since the off-ice preseason practices began in August.

For Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton, their defensive will be up in the air as well. Their top defender, if he dresses for the game, is 16U Upper A Isaac Greene (4GP, 5G, 1A). Other Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton defenders who will see the majority of action are; Caeden Yi (4GP, 3A) and also George Mason and Evelin Tulchinsky.

Notwithstanding the game against the DC Stars, the coaching staff knew offense was going to be a continuing struggle all season long for Upper Montgomery’s junior varsity. When Upper Montgomery plays the upper echelon teams in the county, the Lightning are likely to be heavily outshot and will need to make every opportunity count. The team’s overall focus on defense first hockey is to lighten the need to keep pace offensively and score toe to toe with the top teams. Upper Montgomery has scored 11 goals in four games for an average of 2.75 goals per game. However, if you remove the seven goals scored against the DC Stars, Upper Montgomery is averaging only 1.33 goals per game.

Even with Bhasin removed from the Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton roster, they still have a formidable offensive attack when playing with a full lineup. Speedy sophomore forward Nathan Tian leads the Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton squad in scoring with (5GP, 4G, 3A). Next is Eric Anderson (3GP, 3G, 1A). Amir Karimov also has deposited three goals in five games. Without knowing how much each student will play due to playing double duty with the varsity game shortly thereafter, it is incredibly difficult to assess how the game will play out. It literally may come down to how many skaters are available or which team is in better shape.

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. 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 the 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!

The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity squad unexpectedly exploded past the DC Stars in their season opener last week. The annihilation ended in a final score of 8-0. However, only five and a half minutes into the second period the game was into running clock as Upper Montgomery was already well in front six to nothing. In the preseason Montgomery Hockey Conference poll, the Lightning were ranked as the second worst team in the conference. Now, after one week of conference play, Upper Montgomery leads the entire county in goals scored. While the program was pleased with the season opening victory, the weeks ahead will be much tougher as the competition increases. The Lightning will also have to balance upper level students missing high school games when they will be out-of-town with their external travel teams. When the Lightning are playing with less than a full roster, the team’s depth will be severely tested. Next up for Upper Montgomery is the Silver Spring Blazers on Friday night. Game time is 8:30 pm at Rockville Ice Arena.

Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will not play this week as he is with his external travel team. Shterenberg opened the season pitching a 25 save shutout against the 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 step in and shoulder the netminding responsibilities. Stutsrim-Lyons excelled in his emergency varsity start last season during the opening round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs against BCC where he stopped 40 of 43 shots to keep Upper Montgomery in the game. He also set the Upper Montgomery all-time junior varsity record for save percentage in a season with a .930 save percentage last year. This season, at the junior varsity level he has played well with a goals against average of 2.54 and a save percentage of .926.

Silver Spring, formerly the Blair Blazers, are expected to start ninth grade 14U Upper A goalie Myle Amirthalingam. The Blazers started their backup goalie against the Lightning’s junior varsity squad a few weeks ago. The scouting report on Amirthalingam is that he is a quick athletic goalie who moves well side to side. As a ninth grader, he is relatively small which may provide Upper Montgomery some decent looks at the net. Amirthalingam won his first conference game last week when Silver Spring breezed past Richard Montgomery. It is hard to evaluate Amirthalingam, or the Blazers performance for that matter, as Richard Montgomery was projected by a wide margin to be the lowest ranked team in the conference. Silver Spring’s 5-1 win last week got the job done but was not attention grabbing. The Blazers’ young goalie has a 1.43 goals against average and a .944 save percentage. Upper Montgomery will be trying to repeat their scoring barrage from last week to prove it was not a one off performance.

On defense, the Lightning will role with four defenders. The Lightning’s leading defensive scorer, 18U AA senior Brady Berkhammer returns to lead the Lightning’s backline. He was very good last game pushing the puck up ice when the opportunity was available. He resisted the temptation to do too much by himself. Last season, Berkhammer contributed (15GP, 4G, 15A). He led the team in assists, with many superb passes leading directly to tap in goals. Berkhammer will need to play a very strong game against the Blazers to make up for Lillian Robbins missing the game due to being out-of-town with her external travel team. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera fared pretty well against the Stars playing almost exclusively with Berkhammer. He has played much more confidently this season in the Lightning’s junior varsity games and during practice. His progression this year into a full time varsity defender will allow the Lightning to play with two full sets of defense. Lightning junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland looks to take on a larger role this season. He logged significant ice time last season and had his best offensive campaign (16GP, 2G, 4A). A steady, smooth skating defender, Wendland is rarely caught out of position. A challenge for the lanky defender will be bodying up and playing in the Lightning’s new more physical defensive style. Playing with Wendland against Silver Spring will be junior Max Curtusan who is expected to make his varsity debut this week. The Lightning defense has been instructed to rush up ice and contribute more offensively with the team short on experienced forwards. However, in this game the defensive focus will be on clearing the crease area providing Stutsrim-Lyons with good sight lines to make saves while quickly clearing away rebounds. Ninth grade defender Lenny Roth is expected to dress for the game in case of an injury or to serve dual penalty minutes.

The Blazers leading returning defender is senior former 16U AA Joey Killebrew who has scored in each of the Blazers first two games. Killebrew plays more of a puck possession game while excelling at taking away time and space in the neutral zone. Sophomores Simon Holland and Dan Sellers, both 16U AA student athletes, are Silver Spring’s leading defensive scorers with (2GP, 1G, 2A). Senior 18U Upper A Robert Woodward 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. As Richard Montgomery found out last week, getting to the inside to create high quality scoring chances was difficult against the top defense in division two of the Montgomery Hockey Conference.

Offensively, the Lightning coaches figured the team would have a tough time scoring this season. Then, last week happened. Wow! Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center, Owen Robbins, the team’s captain flanked by fellow senior and last year’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda, paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason were DOMINANT. The line scored eight goals in all. They had six early in the second period putting the game into running clock. The coaching staff also began playing all of the depth forwards much more over the second half of the game. Robbins will likely miss the Silver Spring game as he will be out of town with his external travel team. His absence will force the coaching staff to shuffle students bringing about new forward line combinations this week. Both Gleason and Shkeda scored hat-tricks against the Stars. Robbins had a multiple point outing with a goal and multiple assists. He was terrific defensively as well often covering when Berkhammer rushed up ice with the puck. The balance of the forward lines all did their jobs playing more a more defensive style and giving up no goals. Many Upper Montgomery Lightning students either saw their first varsity game action or their most varsity game action against the Stars including Jason Woodman, Jackson Schickler, Max Israfilbek, Wyatt Ostrander, Mason Jagoz, and Tima Zamaray.

The Blazers score by committee as they don’t have that one dominant skater to carry their team. Junior 18U AA William Campbell, Junior 16U AA Mason Boucher, ninth grade 16U AA Foster Miles, and ninth grade Upper A Rodrick Hobbs all have scored two goals in two games. Upper Montgomery is familiar with Boucher from his performance in last year’s Montgomery Hockey Conference Varsity Tournament semifinal where he scored the overtime game winning goal for Blair. Hobbs netted a hat-trick two weeks ago against the Upper Montgomery junior varsity. Campbell made the play on Boucher’s goal with a nifty pass to the slot. So, the Lightning are well versed in what Silver Spring will attempt to do 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 flinging shots on goal with the opponent’s goalie screened. Expect the Silver Spring defense to 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.

Silver Spring will enter the game as a slight favorite, something that they have not been accustomed to for several seasons. Upper Montgomery will not be able to sneak up on the Blazers especially considering last week’s offensive outburst. The game will come down to which team executes more frequently. Can the Blazers shut down Gleason and Shkeda, or will Upper Montgomery’s offensive dynamos be able to carry last week’s effort forward once again? Will Silver Spring’s superior depth pose a problem for Upper Montgomery’s young and inexperienced roster? How well will the Lightning defend in their own zone in front of Stutsrim-Lyons? Which team will win the special teams battle? These questions will dictate which team has the upper hand on Friday evening. All the Lightning care about is finding a way, any way, to come out on top. Pretty hockey it does not need to be, just effective at getting enough pucks into the Blazers’ net to overcome another team favored to beat up on Upper Montgomery.

#Don’t Be A One Hit Wonder, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!