The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity squad kicks off its 2025 – 2026 regular season campaign on Friday night when the Lightning travel to the Medstar Iceplex, home of the Washington Capitals practice facility, to face the DC Stars. Game time is 6:40 pm. The team’s annual objective remains the same, advance through the regular season, win the opening round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs, earning the chance to play for a spot in the Maryland Student Hockey League high school state playoff tournament. This would be an achievement that no other Lightning squad has been able to accomplish. With a relatively young squad, the preseason rankings slotted Upper Montgomery eleventh of the twelve teams in Montgomery County. Having graduated sixteen seniors over the past two seasons, it is easy to understand the outside perspective of Upper Montgomery. With a change in playing style this season, the Lightning will be looking to pound out victories against teams ranked higher in the standings.
Once again this season, it is expected that Churchill and Walter Johnson will be at the top of the conference standings. With the exception of Richard Montgomery (who is anticipated to be by far the worst team in the county), any of the other eight teams can beat each other on any given night. Last season, Upper Montgomery bucked a developing trend that had occurred during the past couple of seasons, very slow starts. Last year, the team began the season 3-1-1 before faltering down the stretch and being upset in the opening round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. This season, Upper Montgomery will be looking to catch teams off guard pulling off several upsets.
Upper Montgomery’s primary goaltender will be junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg. Shterenberg took over the reigns last season and played in all of the Lightning’s regular season games. As is typical from underclass students, Shterenberg shined in certain games and struggled in others. He finished the season with a 7-7-2 record, a 4.74 goals against average, and an .877 save percentage. This year, Shterenberg is playing at the AAA external travel level with Palmyra up in Pennsylvania. His availability will be sporadic throughout the season. When he is in town, he will get the nod in net. When Shterenberg is absent, Upper Montgomery’s primary junior varsity goalie, sophomore 16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons is ready to step in and shoulder the netminding responsibilities. Stutsrim-Lyons excelled in his emergency start last season during the opening round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs against BCC stopping 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.
The DC Stars are expected to start Upper Montgomery nemesis Anton Tracy in net. Tracy’s best games have come against the Lightning. He is 1-0-2 versus the Lightning with a 2.17 goals against average and a .933 save percentage. Outstanding statistics. Against all other teams, he seems to be beatable finishing last season with a 4.32 goals against average. He is a giant of a student taking up a great portion of the net. His one primary area of weakness is if he has to move quickly from side to side in the crease. Against Upper Montgomery he has made spectacular saves to allow the DC Stars to come away with standings points game after game.
On defense, the Lightning will role with four primary defenders. The Lightning’s leading defensive scorer, 18U AA senior Brady Berkhammer returns to lead the Lightning’s backline. 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 rely on his defensive partners and play within the Lightning’s new systems to maximize his ice time. 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. Joining Berkhammer and Wendland will be 16U AA sophomore Lillian Robbins. Robbins (13GP, 5A) will also be asked to play a much more physical defensive style. The coaching staff has had her playing forward on the penalty kill. Her intellect and knowledge of the game makes her ideally suited to snuff out offensive sets and act as a third defender. Matt Rivera, 16U Lower A, will see regular game action on defense this year for the Lightning varsity. He participated in some varsity game action last year both as a defender and as a forward. 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. Anticipate the Lightning defense will be instructed to rush up ice and contribute more offensively as the team is short on experienced forwards. If any of the Lightning’s regular defenders is out of town with their external travel team, expect ninth grade defenders Lenny Roth and Dylan Kim to dress and be available for game action.
The DC Stars leading returning defender is junior 16U AA Jonathan Lust. Lust is a big stay at home defender who will play the Lightning’s forwards tough in front of the net and in the corners. Seniors Samuel Bensky and Roman Stoinski will also get starting duty in the varsity game. They have experience but foot speed may limit their effectiveness. It will be interesting to see how the Stars handle the rest of their defensive pairings. With the junior varsity game directly prior to the varsity game, the Stars may try and utilize more defenders to limit the time on ice for defenders playing in both games. Now that Leo Nyberg has graduated, the DC Stars defenders do not provide a significant amount of offense.
Offensively, Upper Montgomery returns its first and fifth leading scorers from a season ago. Senior forward Philip Shkeda led the Lightning in points with (15GP, 8G, 14A). Shkeda, a natural left wing, will play almost exclusively with fellow senior 18U AAA center Owen Robbins. Last season, Robbins had several huge offensive games finishing with (12GP, 9G, 8A). When games are close in the final minutes of action, anticipate that the Upper Montgomery coaching staff will use Robbins as an extra defender. Robbins played his first two seasons with Upper Montgomery on defense. This duo will be relied upon to lead Upper Montgomery offensively. They both will need to produce even more offense this season for the Lightning to thrive.
After these two offensive dynamos, there is a drop off in production to junior 16U Upper A Aiden Zheng (17GP, 3G, 6A). Incoming ninth grade forward Miles Gleason, a 16U AA speed demon, will really help Upper Montgomery. He has highlight reel offensive abilities, but will need to adjust his game to what works against older and bigger students. He will also need to work hard defensively to earn the coaching staff’s trust. After these four forwards, ice time is up for grabs. The coaching staff will be looking for some of the junior varsity forwards to take the next step such as sophomore 16U Upper A Max Israfilbek, junior Max Curtusan who will be used at forward in varsity games, with the ability for him to drop back to his natural defensive position, and Jason Woodman. Woodman has to create havoc in front of the net and get in hard on the forecheck to maximize his effectiveness. Juniors Jackson Schickler, Mason Jagoz, and ninth grade center Wyatt Ostrander will get opportunities to play heavy minutes in varsity action. They must be defensively responsible, get the puck out of the defensive zone, and play physical. Their performance will determine how much playing time each student receives. Time will tell if other junior varsity students progress defensively, playing within the Upper Montgomery systems to force their way into the varsity game day lineup.
The DC Stars top returning scorer is senior 18U AA Walter Bernstein (12GP, 8G, 4A). The Stars were offensively starved last year scoring only 36 goals in fourteen games (2.57 goals per game). They did beat Churchill 1-0 in overtime marking the first time in program history that the Stars bested the perennial powerhouse Bulldogs. Junior Gabriel Schon, 16U AA, is the only other returning forward who scored more than three goals last season. He finished with (11GP, 5G, 2A). The DC Stars have a long roster, with some experienced returning forwards in Kai Handy-Kanegis, Ian Cox, Gabriel Ingram, Patrick Kaufmann,to utilize along with ninth grade newcomer 16U Upper A Treysen Shi. If any of these depth forwards can light the lamp on a consistent basis, the DC Stars may get enough scoring to ride Tracy’s netminding into the playoffs.
The 2025 – 2026 season will be one of growth and development for the green and gold’s younger student athletes. It should be exciting and rewarding as the younger skaters grow and blossom. How quickly the team develops the defensive habits necessary to lead the program forward will determine if the Lightning can again challenge the upper echelon varsity teams in the county. Or, is the team simply too young to compete right now this season. Friday night will give us some answers as the season finally gets underway. Come along for the ride, it should be a fun season!
#Season Opening Win, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!