The Upper Montgomery Lightning face another extremely tough challenge on Wednesday afternoon when the team faces off against the Oakdale Bears. Game time is late afternoon, a 4:40 pm puck drop at Rockville Ice Arena. The Lightning enter the contest after getting blown out last Friday night against the Whitman Vikings, the second ranked team in the state. The reward, a matchup versus last year’s state champion and the top ranked team in the state, Oakdale. The Oakdale game is an annual non-conference matchup that the Upper Montgomery program schedules as a way to get the student athletes prepared for playoff hockey against the top teams in the Montgomery Hockey Conference. Upper Montgomery concluded conference play against Whitman finishing with a winning record (and best record) since the 2018 – 2019 season at 6-5-1.
In net for the Lightning will be sophomore 16U AA goalie Ilan Shterenberg. Shterenberg has handled the majority of the goaltending duties this season for Upper Montgomery. He has shined in some games making 49 saves in the Lightning’s 3-1 loss to Wootton early in the season and 44 saves in the overtime victory over the DC Stars. His play is typical for an underclass student athlete moving up from his staring role on the junior varsity last season. Shterenberg set or tied numerous junior varsity program records; tying for most wins in a season, and setting the lowest goals against average and highest save percentage in program history. This year, Shterenberg has a solid save percentage of .878 facing tougher competition. His goals against average is a strong 4.80 having been negatively impacted by several of the Lightning’s poor defensive performances in front of him; Urbana, the second Wootton game, Churchill, and Whitman. For Upper Montgomery to have any shot against Oakdale, the young Lightning netminder will have to be the star of the evening.
In goal for Oakdale should be senior all conference netminder, Charles Forino. Forino is an 18U AA netminder who has sat behind last year’s all state goaltender Devin Brown for the last few seasons. Given the opportunity to start this year, he has thrived. His personal statistics are outstanding. He has a 4-1-1 record. His goals against average is 2.78 and his save percentage is .892. He is backed up by Oakdale’s junior varsity netminder Zachary Sanford who only plays when Forino misses a game due to his external travel team being out of town.
Defensively, junior 16U AA defender Brady Berkhammer has upped his game this season. He has set personal career highs in all offensive categories (13GP, 4G, 14A). He has been on a tear recently with a four point game earlier in the season against Northwest / Quince Orchard with two goals and two assists. He has eight points in his last four games, and eleven points in his last six games. Berkhammer leads the team with fourteen assists. Sophomore defender Miles Wendland has played important minutes against the opposition’s top forward lines. He has accelerated his game from his ninth grade season and scored his first career varsity goal recently against Churchill. Senior Cole Howerton has stepped into a regular role on the varsity playing mostly with Wendland. Howerton has played some of his best hockey in his final high school season. His play stood out in the Lightning’s win over Richard Montgomery. Ninth grade 14U AA defender Lillian Robbins has seen regular action this season and contributed three assists in the game against Richard Montgomery. She has played in nine games and has dished out four assists. Senior Patrick Sell scored his first career high school varsity goal in the Northwest / Quince Orchard game. His size and presence on the blue line has caused problems for the opposition. Ninth grade Matt Rivera and 19U AA sophomore Avery Evans have each gained valuable experience at the varsity level in their limited game action. Getting time in varsity games now will help them in future seasons as they take on larger roles with the team.
On defense for the Bears it will seem as if senior 18U AA defender Timothy Farley never leaves the ice. The Bears rotate the rest of their defenders with him. Farley has had an excellent finish to his high school career (8GP, 5G, 8A) playing against the top forward lines of the opposition. The next leading defensive scorer is junior 16U AA Ayden Rowe (7GP, 4G, 5A). Other defenders who will see game action will be Jacob Rollins, Noah Cardarella, and Jayden Price. It has been a tough slog for Oakdale this season as their home rink, Skate Frederick has been closed all year due to an ice surface malfunction. Oakdale has had to play all of their games on the road with other teams benefitting from the last line change. It has also caused Oakdale to schedule many games against private school foes. The Bears have performed admirably this year. It is everyone expectation that Oakdale will be right in the mix to win the state championship for the second consecutive year.
Offensively, the Lightning knew they would have to replace Maryland Student Hockey League Hall of Fame standout Chris Hassett who graduated after last season. Unexpectedly, junior Ryan Jacobson left to play junior hockey in Michigan. Then, last season’s leading returning scorer Nathan Cassel (6GP, 6G, 5A) missed most of the early portion of the season with an upper body injury. His hat-trick against Rockville / Magruder helped the Lightning to a 5-5 tie against the Rams. Cassel just returned to game action this month with his presence on the ice giving Upper Montgomery a shot of confidence offensively.
The Upper Montgomery coaching staff moved 16U AAA junior defender Owen Robbins to center as a means of generating additional offense. The move has paid off as Robbins authored a hat-trick in the Lightning’s season opening win over BCC and scored four times against Richard Montgomery. The Lightning’s season opening victory over BCC was the program’s first ever win against the Barons. The team followed that win up with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over BCC to complete the season sweep. Robbins has been near the top of the Lightning’s leading scorers the entire season with (9GP, 7G, 4A). He is second on the team in goals behind Upper Montgomery’s leading offensive threat, senior center Henry Honacki. Honacki has had an offensive explosion in his final high school season. He currently leads the team in goals with (13GP, 12G, 7A). He was on a tear recently having scored in five consecutive games before the loss to Churchill. Honacki scored the game winning goal in two important Lightning victories, beating the overtime buzzer by scoring with eleven seconds remaining in the extra period to defeat the DC Stars. Then, Honacki scored on the powerplay late in the third period against BCC. Honacki leads the team in powerplay goals with four. His production on the powerplay has helped the Lightning immensely. The team has more powerplay goals already this season (10 for 29, 34.5%) than all of last year’s dismal performance with the extra attacker. Junior forward Philip Shkeda has also been an offensive threat with (11GP, 5G, 11A) playing alongside Honacki and Cassel.
A couple of sophomores have stepped in and filled important roles on the team. Returning forward Aiden Zheng has (13GP, 3G, 6A) continuing his assent from last season’s breakout during the Montgomery Hockey Conference varsity playoff tournament. Newcomer Jake Hudson has used his size well to get the puck out of the defensive zone along the boards leading to numerous rushes up ice. Several of the odd skater rushes have directly led to goals. He has (10GP, 2G, 6A) including dishing out three assists against Richard Montgomery and scoring twice against Northwest / Quince Orchard. With depth an issue, several student athletes who have played the majority of their high school careers with the junior varsity team are receiving playing time this season at the varsity level. Senior forward TJ Gottesman scored his first career varsity goal in the Northwest / Quince Orchard game and senior forward AJ Marks contributed an assist in that same game. Ninth grader Siddy Bhasin’s play is starting to ramp up as he has (9GP, 1G, 4A). Senior Josh Nadler missed the beginning of the season while he was out-of-the country. He is looking to elevate his game heading into the playoffs.
Oakdale’s experienced squad will have plenty of offensive firepower. Senior 18U AA all conference forward Kyle Metzler leads the Bears in overall scoring. He has torched the opposition this season with (8GP, 12G, 8A) in leading the Bears to their 6-1-1 record. Another high flying forward is junior 16U AA skater, Gavin Timberlake. This season he has contributed (7GP, 5G, 2A). Oakdale has received outstanding secondary scoring with sophomore 16U AA Chase Layer (8GP, 2G, 9A), Micah Venezie (7GP, 2G, 4A), Mason Macera (7GP, 4G, 1A), sophomore 16U AA Christian Swanson (10GP, 4G, 3A), and Tyler Yuhas (4GP, 3G, 2A) all providing necessary offensive production that great teams have to be successful. Oakdale will look to pressure the Lightning defense in waves. Upper Montgomery will need to play the exact same way as last year when the Lightning played the Bears even. Upper Montgomery held a 1-0 lead with less than five minutes to play by stifling Oakdale with is smothering defensive performance frustrating the Bears. Ultimately, the Bears scored back to back powerplay goals on a five on three and then on the remainder of the five on four powerplay to squeak by Upper Montgomery.
The Lightning need a good performance to wash away the feeling of last Friday’s rout. The performance will need to be much better against Oakdale or the Lightning may suffer a similar blowout defeat. To go on a long playoff run, the Lightning will need to clamp down defensively and make it more difficult for the opposition to score. It was far too easy for Whitman to penetrate into the offensive zone. Conversely, on offense, Upper Montgomery will need to drive more to the net and score ugly goals. The total of nine shots on goal against Whitman, one of them coming on a penalty shot, is simply not acceptable. While finishing the regular season strong is important, the team will need to increase its overall level of play to match that of the top teams in the county. It should now be an expectation that the Lightning advance out of the opening round of the Montgomery Hockey Conference playoffs. Playing in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs with an opportunity to qualify for the Maryland Student Hockey League state playoffs (for the first time ever) should be an annual destination for the program.
#Finish Strong, #Playoff Prep, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!