The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity is looking to continue its strong start to begin the 2024 -2025 high school hockey season when the team returns to action on Thursday evening to face Northwest / Quince Orchard on Halloween. Game time is 7:00 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. Upper Montgomery has begun the season with an impressive victory over BCC, the first ever in program history, followed up by playing Rockville / Magruder to a tie this past Friday night. Upper Montgomery had the Rockville / Magruder game until giving up the game tying goal with 1.3 seconds remaining in regulation. The Lightning will be looking to make the game against Northwest / Quince Orchard a Halloween massacre as Upper Montgomery will be the far more talented team on the ice.
Northwest / Quince Orchard enters the game on a high, having secured a major upset of Richard Montgomery this past Friday night. Some prognostications had Northwest / Quince Orchard going winless this season and not being competitive in any game. Kudos to the Northwest / Quince Orchard student athletes for snagging a victory, scoring with 1:12 remaining in the game to break a four all tie and then finishing off the game into the empty net. Upper Montgomery faced Northwest / Quince Orchard only one time last season and the Lightning trounced Northwest / Quince Orchard 14-1 in the quarterfinal round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference Varsity Playoff Tournament.
Upper Montgomery’s goaltender, 16U AA Ilan Shterenberg was really good in the win win over BCC. Shterenberg made 31 saves, with a .912 save percentage, and did not give up a goal while the Lightning were at even strength. BCC scored two powerplay goals and a goal with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker. Against Rockville / Magruder Shterenberg was busy once again making 30 saves including some outstanding saves to deny Rockville / Magruder likely goals. Three goals that went in were the direct result of Upper Montgomery defensive zone turnovers. He will again be backed up by ninth grade netminder Porter Stutsrim-Lyons. Stutsrim-Lyons plays for the Caps Academy 14U Lower A external travel team and has started off his high school career strongly playing for the junior varsity. Stutsrim-Lyons is 2-1-2 on the season with a 1.96 goals against average and a .933 save percentage. He began his high school career with a shutout of Richard Montgomery and followed up that performance with a career high and junior varsity program record 47 saves against Wootton.
In net for Northwest / Quince Orchard is likely to be ninth grade netminder Sean Wyatt. In securing the victory over Richard Montgomery, Wyatt made 47 saves while giving up only four goals for a .922 save percentage. Northwest / Quince Orchard senior goalie Joseph Dean played in the opener and surrendered fourteen goals to Wootton. If somehow there is rotation in place and the game against Upper Montgomery is Dean’s game, that would be a bonus for the Lightning. If the two netminders split the game, that would also be a boon for Upper Montgomery. Either way, for the third straight game, Upper Montgomery will again have a big advantage in net with Shterenberg.
On defense, the Lightning should finally have most of their defense available for a game. The Lightning’s most experience defender junior 16U AA Brady Berkhammer will pair with either ninth grade defender Lillian Robbins or senior stay at home defender Patrick Sell. Anticipate that 16U Lower A Miles Wendland (2GP, 3A) will skate with senior Cole Howerton. Ninth grade defender Matt Rivera will see regular action and he will play with either Robbins or Sell, depending upon matchups. With the loss of so many experienced skaters off last season’s roster, almost every skater in the program is likely to see some playing time on the varsity this season. Rivera and Sell look to be in line to dress out for this game. Sophomore Avery Evans would also play if she is available on Thursday evening.
Northwest / Quince Orchard has two reasonably competent defenders in senior 18U Upper A Drew Blurton and junior 18U AA Roman Martin. After those two, there is a massive drop off in talent to the rest of the Northwest / Quince Orchard defenders. Anticipate that Northwest / Quince Orchard’s two stud defenders will play with each other on the powerplay and at any crucial moments in the game. But, they will likely be split with other defenders for most of the game in an attempt to keep at least one of them on the ice at all times. Look for Upper Montgomery to take advantage of the less experienced defense and overload to that side of the ice on offensive zone entries.
Offensively, Upper Montgomery returns its second and third leading scorers from a season ago. Senior 18U AA forward Nathan Cassel (15GP, 11G, 18A) and junior forward Philip Shkeda (20GP, 13G, 12A). This duo will be relied upon to lead Upper Montgomery offensively and they both will need to produce just like last year after loosing their center for the past two seasons, Chris Hassett to graduation. Cassel has an opportunity score enough goals (14) or hand out enough assists (11) to qualify for induction into the Maryland Student Hockey League Hall of Fame. He led the Lightning offensively with a hat-trick including two breakaway goals in the tie versus Rockville / Magruder. With Upper Montgomery playing Owen Robbins at center this season, the junior has flourished scoring a hat-trick against BCC. Senior center, Henry Honacki 18U Upper A (21GP, 7G, 8A) elevated his game last year and if he can increase his scoring production it will help supplement Cassel, Shkeda, and Robbins. With Shkeda returning to the lineup after missing the Rockville / Magruder game while he was out of town, Upper Montgomery should be at full strength offensively.
After these four students, there is a drop off in production to sophomore 16U Lower A Aiden Zheng (9GP, 3G, 5A) last year and who has contributed (2GP, 1G, 3A) this season. Senior Josh Nadler (13GP, 4A) last year returns to the lineup against Northwest / Quince Orchard after missing the first two games of the season while he was out of the country. Both Zheng and Nadler will play heavy minutes with the varsity this season and both will need to increase their offensive output. Nadler is the junior varsity’s all-time leading goal scorer with 20 career junior varsity goals. Joining them on the varsity roster are forwards TJ Gottesman, the junior varsity’s career points leader with 32 points, sophomore newcomer Jake Hudson (two assists in his first varsity game), and ninth grade 14U Lower A forward Siddy Bhasin. Bhasin and Hudson currently lead the junior varsity in scoring so far this season. AJ Marks and his big frame will get a look in varsity competition as well. Other junior varsity student athletes may get called up as the season progresses when the core of the varsity squad is missing due to external travel team out-of-town game conflicts.
Northwest / Quince Orchard has only one offensive scorer of note, junior 16U AA center Ethan Custudio. He scored four times and assisted on the other two goals scored in Northwest / Quince Orchard’s game against Richard Montgomery. The key to limiting Northwest / Quince Orchard is to stop Custudio as Upper Montgomery did last season in the playoff game. If Upper Montgomery handles Custudio, it will be a long, long night and the rout will be on.
The 2024 – 2025 season has started out well for Upper Montgomery. Once thought of as a season of growth and development for the green and gold’s younger student athletes, the year is quickly turning into an opportunity to compete right away. If the Lightning can smoke Northwest / Quince Orchard, the team will be off to a 2-0-1 start to the campaign leading into Friday’s late night tilt with high powered Wootton. Let’s hope that a scary good Halloween performance is in store for Upper Montgomery!
# Halloween Massacre, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!