The Upper Montgomery Lightning host the DC Stars this Friday evening in the program’s annual senior night celebration. The festivities are scheduled to commence at 7:55 pm before the opening puck faceoff scheduled at 8:15 pm at Cabin John Ice Rink. The Lightning’s four seniors (Brady Berkhammer, Owen Robbins, Philip Shkeda, and Jason Woodman) will play together and start the game’s first shift as a further recognition of the students’ commitment and dedication to the Upper Montgomery program.
In addition to the senior night platitudes, the game has immense importance as it pertains to the upcoming Montgomery Hockey Conference playoff seedings. The Lightning are looking to advance up the rankings while the DC Stars are looking at securing a relatively high seeding. Coupled with the Stars seeking revenge against the Lightning for an opening night 8-0 shellacking, the game has the chance to be more combustible than the average Friday night high school hockey game. Friday’s game will also mark only the second time all season that all of Upper Montgomery’s high end travel students will be present on the ice for the team. The other game, the first matchup with the DC Stars. The Stars have changed their playing style since their first two games of the season. They have since rebounded from a disastrous defensive beginning to the season to enter the contest with a 6-4 record, having beaten both Sherwood and Whitman from division one of the Montgomery Hockey Conference.
Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will return to face the DC Stars after missing last week’s game versus Walter Johnson while he was out of the country. Shterenberg was excellent in his last start, a 4-2 loss to Rockville / Magruder making 42 saves. He easily was the most impactful student on the ice. Shterenberg made 25 saves in the season opening shutout victory over the DC Stars. He enters the game with a 2-3 record, a .907 save percentage, and a 3.46 goals against average. Opposite Shterenberg in the cage, the DC Stars are expected to start Upper Montgomery nemesis Anton Tracy in net. He did not play in the team’s first matchup. DC Stars backup netminder, Gabriel Sokol took the loss opening night. Tracy’s best games have come against the Lightning. He is 1-0-2 versus the Lightning with a .933 save percentage, and a 2.17 goals against average. 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 Stars to come away with standings points game after game. On the season, Tracy has a 3-3 record, an .899 save percentage, and a 2.82 goals against average.
On defense, the Lightning will have almost their full complement of defenders for the game as junior Max Curtusan will miss the game while serving his supplemental discipline. He received a boarding major penalty and a game misconduct against Walter Johnson last week. Depending upon the DC Stars line combinations, Upper Montgomery may play with their defensive pairings stacked. The Lightning’s leading scorer, also the leading defensive scorer for all of Montgomery County, as well as the second 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 averaging two and a half points per game with (10GP, 11G, 14A). Berkhammer is also within one point of the lead for the entire Montgomery Hockey Conference in scoring with his 25 points. His eleven goals and 25 total points are both personal single season career highs.
Lightning junior defender 16U Upper A Miles Wendland (9GP, 1G, 2A) will either play up with Berkhammer or with sophomore 16U AA Lillian Robbins. Robbins returns to action after missing last week’s game as she was out of town with her external travel team. She is key to the Lightning’s penalty kill unit which has suffered mightily with her out of the lineup. Her intellect and knowledge of the game makes her ideally suited to snuff out offensive sets and act as a third defender. The more physical she plays, the more her game will stand out. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera (8GP, 1G, 4A) has played better as the season has gone along. 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 has allowed the Lightning to play with two full sets of defense. Anticipate the Lightning defense will be instructed to rush up ice and contribute offensively as the team is short on experienced forwards. Ninth grade defender Lenny Roth has played hard and well in limited action. He will dress for the game and may see shifts along with Berkhammer throughout the evening.
The DC Stars leading returning defender is junior 16U AA Jonathan Lust (10GP, 7G, 2A). 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. He has elevated his offense this season making him a more complete defender. Seniors Samuel Bensky and Roman Stoinski will also get substantial duty in the varsity game. They have experience but lack foot speed which may limit their effectiveness. In the season opener, the Lightning’s top line flew past the Stars defenders as if they were not involved in the game. With Upper Montgomery having the last line change as the home team, the Lightning coaching staff will look to get favorable forward line matchups. It will be interesting to see how the Stars handle the rest of their defensive pairings as they have little high end depth. Now that Leo Nyberg, the Stars top defender from a year ago, has graduated, the DC Stars defenders outside of Lust do not provide hardly any offense.
Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (5GP, 2G, 8A), flanked by fellow senior and last year’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (4GP, 6G, 4A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (6GP, 14G, 5A) has been DOMINANT. The problem has been the Lightning have had this line available only twice this season. Robbins has missed time with his external travel team. Shkeda returns this week after being out long-term with an upper body injury. Gleason just recently returned from his own month long absence due to a medical issue. Gleason has provided instant offense this season with four points or more in three of the six games he has played in during his inaugural season. He had an off game last week with only three points against Walter Johnson. In their absence, junior 16U Upper A forward Aiden Zheng (9GP, 3G, 5A) has stepped up and provided a spark. He has scored in three of the previous five games. His hustle, energy, and defensive backchecking are examples for the younger students who should be watching how Zheng plays away from the puck.
The DC Stars top scorer is senior 18U AA Walter Bernstein (9GP, 8G, 5A). Junior 16U AA Gabriel Schon (5GP, 4G, 2A) recently returned from a lengthy suspension for verbally abusing a referee and other unsportsmanlike conduct actions. The DC Stars have a long roster, with some experienced returning forwards in Harry Fishman (8GP, 3G, 1A), Kai Handy-Kanegis, Ian Cox, Gabriel Ingram, and Patrick Kaufman, to utilize along with ninth grade newcomer 16U Upper A Treysen Shi (9GP, 2G, 2A). If any of the Stars depth forwards can light the lamp on Friday, it may be enough scoring if Tracy’s netminding once again throttles the Lightning.
The 2025 – 2026 season has been one of growth and development for the green and gold’s younger student athletes. Now, with two games remaining in the regular season, it is time for the team to ride a wave of good play leading into the playoffs. If the team will commit to the defensive habits necessary to lead the program forward, the Lightning may be a frightening team to play in a one and done playoff scenario. As the season opener versus the DC Stars showed, if Berkhammer and the top forward line is on, the Lightning can storm through any team in the county. If Upper Montgomery refuses to engage defensively, every game could turn into a long night with the opposition skating through and around the young Lightning skaters. It’s time for the seniors to lead the way and carry the program to several late regular season and playoff wins.
#Senior Night Victory, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!