The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity will faceoff against the the combined Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton squad on Friday night in the quarterfinal round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. The regular season game between the two programs was a wildly entertaining 7-4 victory for the combined team. The game was much closer than the final score would indicate with the Lightning closing the deficit to one goal twice in the third period before Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton scored two late goals to salt away the victory. Even though this is the seventh seeded Lightning versus the second seeded combined team, this game comes with a caveat. With the game being played on the opening night of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, many travel level student athletes are likely to miss the game as it is an enormously popular travel team tournament weekend. Additionally, families may be leaving town for the long three day weekend. So, maybe the primary key to the contest is which student athletes are actually in town and available to play in the game. In prior seasons, the quarterfinal round has had multiple upsets depending upon which teams had the majority of its squad intact for the quarterfinal round games.
Upper Montgomery enters the game coming off of a 9-1 loss to top ranked BCC on Tuesday evening in the team’s regular season finale. The game was close at 3-1 entering the third period before the wheels fell off in the final fifteen minutes. A complete 45 minute performance will be necessary to remain competitive throughout the game against Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton. The combined team has been off for two weeks since a 2-1 victory over Churchill.
In net for the Lightning will be ninth grade goalie George Schickler. Schickler recently won his first ever game at the junior varsity level when the Lightning defeated Walter Johnson 6-5 to qualify for the junior varsity playoff tournament. With both of the Lightning’s other junior varsity playoff eligible goalies out of town with their travel teams, Schickler will have the net for the entire game on Friday night. As with any ninth grade goalie, his play has been at times very good, and at other times he wishes he could have played better.
Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton has an interesting dilemma. Which of their goalies will be in town? If both goalies are available, do they split the game? Sophomore 16U Upper A Sean Wyatt has by far the better statistics this season. He has a 3-0 record, a .942 save percentage, and a 1.45 goals against average. The combined team’s other netminder is junior Kevin Yu. Yu is 3-1 on the season, with an .847 save percentage, and a 4.57 goals against average. In the earlier matchup, Upper Montgomery scored all four of their goals against Yu in a little under half of the game.
On defense Friday night, the Lightning will play their two consistent defensive pairings. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera (8GP, 4G, 2A) will play with ninth grade defender Dylan Kim. Junior hard nosed defender Max Curtusan will use his big frame to body up the combined team’s forwards. Curtusan will play with smooth skating ninth grade defender Lenny Roth. If any defender struggles or gets into penalty trouble, this may be another game where Upper Montgomery senior captain Jason Woodman (9G, 4A) drops back to play on defense. Rivera has scored each of his four goals on the season off of end to end rushes up ice. He is tied for second on the team with his four goals. The young defenders getting to play significant minutes in the playoff contest will illustrate how much they have improved since the off-ice preseason practices began in August.
For Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton, their defense will be up in the air as well. Their top defender, if he dresses for the game, is 16U Upper A Isaac Greene (6GP, 8G, 1A). He scored twice versus Upper Montgomery on Halloween. If he is in uniform, he will easily be the most talented student athlete on the ice. Other Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton defenders who will see the majority of action are; Caeden Yi (6GP, 4A) and also George Mason and Evelin Tulchinsky.
When Upper Montgomery has played the upper echelon teams in the county, the Lightning have been heavily outshot in each game. Thus, the team will need to make every offensive opportunity count. The team’s overall focus on defense first hockey is to lighten the need to keep pace offensively and score toe to toe with the top teams. Upper Montgomery has averaged 2.89 goals per game this season. However, if you remove the two games where the Lightning exploded for goals against the weaker teams they played, the goals per game average sinks to an average of only 1.86 goals per game. It is hard to win hockey games averaging less than two goals per game. On the flip side, the team has averaged giving up five goals per game. The goals per game average increases in games that the Lightning’s starting junior varsity goalie, sophomore 16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons has not been in net.
Ninth grade forward Tima Zamaray leads the junior varsity in scoring with (9GP, 9G, 3A) and is coming off of a recent four goal game versus Walter Johnson. Zamaray had a personal four game goal streak snapped against BCC Tuesday evening. Junior forward Mason Jagoz (8GP, 4G, 5A) including a hat-trick against the DC Stars and four assists against Walter Johnson is second on the team in points while his five assists lead the Lightning junior varsity. His four goals are tied with Rivera for second on the team. He returns after missing the game against the Barons. Senior team captain Jason Woodman has (9GP, 4A). Ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander (9GP, 2G, 3A) is still basking in scoring the game winning goal in the final minute against the Wildcats to help push Upper Montgomery into the playoffs. Sophomore 16U Upper A Max Israfilbek (8GP, 3G) scored for the first time against the Wildcats in six games since scoring twice in the season opener.
The Northwest / Quince Orchard / Wootton roster has a formidable offensive attack when playing with a full lineup. Speedy sophomore forward Nathan Tian is second on the team in scoring with (7GP, 5G, 3A). Next is Eric Anderson (4GP, 3G, 3A). Amir Karimov (7GP, 4G) is also dangerous at the junior varsity level. Joseph Davis (3GP, 2G, 1A) scored both of his goals against Upper Montgomery on Halloween. Sophomore Kuba Okrasa (5GP, 1G, 3A) rounds out a deep forward contingent. Without knowing if each student is in town with the travel team tournament schedules, it is incredibly difficult to assess how the game will play out other than the combined team is a heavy favorite entering the playoff matchup with Upper Montgomery. The outcome may literally come down to how many skaters are available for each team or which team has their top end students available.
As has been mentioned over and over this fall and winter, the 2025 – 2026 season was thought to be one where the coaching staff was focused on individual student growth and development. With eight incoming junior varsity students in their first season of high school hockey, the program was looking for all eight of these students to contribute to the program over the next four seasons. The playing time received this season should definitely help each student become better in the years to come when Upper Montgomery is likely to be better positioned to again challenge for the junior varsity championship. The program won the Montgomery Hockey Conference Junior Varsity Championship four years ago during the 2021 – 2022 season. This season, the team may simply be too young and inexperienced to compete on the defensive end of the ice. Friday evening is a terrific opportunity for the Lightning to spring an upset and move on to the semifinal round of the playoffs and equal the performance of last year’s junior varsity team that advanced to the semifinals of the playoffs.
#Advance to Semis, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!