The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity will be looking to rebound on Friday evening when the team faces off against the Rockville / Magruder Rams. Game time is 8:45 pm at Rockville Ice Arena. The Lightning head into the game coming off of a brutal loss to Silver Spring, losing to the Blazers 11-4 last week. Team defensive play and goaltending have consistently contributed to the Lightning’s losses this season. Entering the final game before the December holiday break, the Lightning sit at 2-6 on the season having given up the second most goals in the county. Upper Montgomery averages 6.5 goals against per game through eight games and that includes a shutout in the season opener and a recent game against Northwest / Quince Orchard where the team gave up only two goals.
Rockville / Magruder enters the game with a 3-2-3 record having given up only 23 goals on the season which is 29 goals less than Upper Montgomery. Each week, the Lightning have had to cobble together the team’s lineup as upper level students miss playing in the high school games while they are out-of-town with their external travel teams. When the Lightning are playing with less than a full roster, the team’s depth is severely tested as younger students are asked to step into roles that they are unaccustomed to play. One of those weekends is upcoming as the Lightning will be missing two top forwards once again this week.
Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg is likely to be available for the game against the Rams after missing last week’s contest. Shterenberg opened the season pitching a 25 save shutout against the DC Stars for the first shutout of his varsity career. With Shterenberg present, goaltending for the Lightning should be solid. Shterenberg enters the contest with a 2-2 record, a .904 save percentage, and a 3.30 goals against average. In the opposing goal, Rockville / Magruder is expected to start ninth grade 16U AA goalie Ethan Rabinovitch. Rabinovitch has started all but one game for the Rams. He carries into the contest against Upper Montgomery a 3-1-2 record, a .915 save percentage, and a 2.89 goals against average. He has good range and quick reflexes which allows him to cover a large portion of the goal.
On defense, the Lightning will finally have their full complement of defenders available for a game. The Lightning’s leading scorer, and also the leading defensive scorer for all of Montgomery County, as well as the 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 with (8GP, 9G, 13A). Berkhammer also leads the entire Montgomery Hockey Conference in scoring with his 22 points. His nine goals and 22 total points are both personal single season career highs.
Berkhammer will need to play a very strong game against the Rams to help contain the Rams top two offensive dynamos. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera (7GP, 1G, 3A) returns to action this week after serving his one game suspension for a farce of a penalty called against him two weeks ago. It was a game in which he scored his first career varsity goal then was later assessed a boarding major and game misconduct. The league reviewed the hit and confirmed that the contact was not even worthy of a penalty, much less a major penalty. Unfortunately, a stupid USA Hockey rule prevents the referees from overturning the call once the game is uploaded and finalized in the scoring system. Look for Berkhammer and Rivera to partner up against the Rams.
Lightning junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland (7GP, 1G, 2A) has taken on a larger role this season. He played his best game of the season recently against Northwest / Quince Orchard. The Upper Montgomery coaching staff changed up the defensive pairings and played Wendland with Berkhammer in an attempt to throttle the county’s leading goal scorer, Ethan Custodio. The strategy worked with both Berkhammer and Wendland shining in the Lightning’s victory! Rugged junior defender Max Curtusan will likely be paired with Wendland. Sophomore 16U AA defender Lillian Robbins returned last week from several weeks away playing with her external travel team. She will likely slide in and play both defense and shifts at forward against the Rams. The Lightning’s two young ninth grade defenders may dress for the game. If they do, it is unlikely that they will play much, if at all. Dylan Kim and Lenny Roth have both gained valuable experience over these past few weeks playing in varsity games which will help them in future years as they grow and develop.
One of the largest changes for the Rams this season is on defense where star senior defenders 18U AAA Andrew Pfeufer and 18U AA Aiden Ward no longer patrol the backline.. The Rams leading returning defender is senior 18U Upper A Max Yuen. Yuen is a wide bodied defender that the Lightning can take advantage of with team speed down the wings. Sophomore 16U Lower A Lukas Aagaard has a lot of varsity experience for playing in just his second year of high school hockey. He will likely play a significant amount paired with Rams senior defender 18U Upper A Lincoln Herrick. Sophomore 16U AA Evelyn May, and juniors David Schanzer and Carder Wilcox are expected to see action spread throughout the game. None of the Rams defenders have contributed more than two points of offense this season.
Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (3GP, 2G, 7A), flanked by fellow senior and last year’s leading scorer Philip Shkeda (4GP, 6G, 4A), paired with ninth grade 16U AA Miles Gleason (5GP, 12G, 5A) have been DOMINANT. The problem has been the Lightning have seen this line play together only twice this season. Robbins has missed time with his external travel team. Shkeda is still out for the next three weeks with an upper body injury. The good news was that Gleason returned from his own recent month long absence due to a medical issue. In his return Gleason provided instant offense with two goals and two assists. He now has four points or more in three of the four games he has played in. But, he will miss the game against the Rams. On January 9th, the Lightning should finally have their full lineup back and be ready to play the final two regular season games heading into the playoffs. In their absence, junior 16U Upper A forward Aiden Zheng (7GP, 2G, 3A) has stepped up and provided a spark. He has scored in two of the previous three games. His hustle, energy, and playmaking are an example to the younger students who should be watching how Zheng plays away from the puck.
The Rams are like Northwest / Quince Orchard where super talented forwards have produced the bulk of their offense. Sophomore 16U AA Alexander Johnston scored four goals against Upper Montgomery in the early November meeting with the Lightning. He now has (6GP, 9G). Fellow Sophomore 16U AAA Cameron Gifford missed the beginning of the season and has had a slow first half of the season with (5GP, 1G, 4A). Three of his four assists came against Upper Montgomery. Taking out the Rams earlier contest against the Lightning, they are averaging only three goals per game. This bodes well for the game being close throughout as Rockville / Magruder does not possess an explosive offense outside of their two dynamic sophomores. If one is missing with their external travel team, the game should be a real dog fight. However, Gifford has the ability to be a game wrecker. He hurt Upper Montgomery in both games played last season. He had a four point game with a hat-trick and an assist in the first game. Gifford scored with one second left in regulation with the goalie pulled to allow Rockville / Magruder to scrape away with a tie. In the rematch, he scored four goals to help propel the Rams third period comeback victory over the Lightning. The only other Rams forwards with more than five points on the season is senior Ari Salomon who has (5GP, 3G, 3A).
The only way that Upper Montgomery will consistently win games is by being buttoned up on the defensive end of the ice. The Lightning must suffocate the game by playing a very hard physical defensive game against high powered offensive skaters. Although played on ice, Upper Montgomery needs to make it seem as if the game is being played in mud. If the opposition has to fight for every inch on the ice and does not have time and space to make plays, the Lighting have a great chance at winning. The goaltending also needs to be better. There have been several games recently when a soft goal or two against has deflated the team. Upper Montgomery can certainly beat Rockville / Magruder. It will come down to which team is better able to manage the puck in their own defensive end of the ice to limit the other offense from getting good looks.
#2nd Half Wins, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!