The Upper Montgomery Lightning varsity squad will be in for a tough test on Friday night when the team squares off against their toughest opponent of the season, the second ranked Walter Johnson Wildcats. Game time is 10:00 pm at Cabin John Ice Rink. Upper Montgomery is 2-7 on the season and will be looking to jump start the sprint to the finish of the regular season with three conference games remaining. Walter Johnson is riding a five game winning streak into the contest. The last three Wildcat wins have come by way of shutouts. Four games ago, Rockville / Magruder managed to score only once. With the game being played before school resumes, many families will still be out of town on holiday travel. Student availability will be a complicating factor for both teams with several students anticipated to be healthy scratches due to their lack of availability.
Walter Johnson enters the game with a 6-3 record having given up only 19 goals on the season (2.11 goals against per game) which is 37 goals less than Upper Montgomery has let in. 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 playing. Another one of those weekends is upcoming as the Lightning will be missing several students who will be out of town with their families with Montgomery County public school not slated to resume classes until the Monday after the game.
Upper Montgomery’s primary varsity goaltender junior 16U AAA Ilan Shterenberg will miss the game as he will be out of the country. Shterenberg was excellent last week in the team’s 4-2 loss to Rockville / Magruder making 42 saves. He easily was the most impactful student on the ice. With Shterenberg absent, Upper Montgomery’s primary junior varsity goalie, sophomore 16U Lower A Porter Stutsrim-Lyons will get the start. For Stutsrim-Lyons this will be his fourth start of the season at the varsity level. He will need to play well for the Lightning to have any shot to beat the Wildcats. Depending upon Stutsrim-Lyons performance, the team will have both of its ninth grade backup goalies available if he struggles to stop the puck. Walter Johnson’s primary varsity goalie is junior 18U AA Isaac Russ. Russ has been fantastic this season with a 6-3 record, a 2.11 goals against average, and an .886 goals against average. Provided he is in town, he will get the start in net. If he is unavailable, the Wildcats will be forced to start a position skater in goal which might be senior John Abrams who played goalie years ago as a youngster.
On defense, the Lightning will have four defenders available for the game. Depending upon the Wildcats 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 with (9GP, 11G, 13A). Berkhammer is also tied for the lead for the entire Montgomery Hockey Conference in scoring with his 24 points. His eleven goals and 24 total points are both personal single season career highs.
Berkhammer will need to play a very strong game against Walter Johnson to help contain the Wildcats top offensive threats. He may again be paired with junior 16U Upper A Miles Wendland (8GP, 1G, 2A) who is expected back after missing last week’s game. When this duo played together against Northwest / Quince Orchard they shut down the Jaguars high scoring senior center Ethan Custodio who leads the Montgomery Hockey Conference in goals. Sophomore 16U Lower A Matt Rivera (8GP, 1G, 4A) will be out of action as he will be traveling with his family. Rugged junior defender Max Curtusan will likely be paired with Wendland unless Wendland is playing with Berkhammer. Ninth grade defender Lenny Roth has come a long way since the beginning of the season and he will see game action against Walter Johnson.
The wildcats have a very experienced and mobile defensive corps. Junior 18U AA Matthew Corwin has three years of varsity experience. He is playing this season without his older brother who has graduated, Corwin is still one of he leaders for Walter Johnson (9GP, 3G, 5A). Senior 18U AAA Oliver Curtis has four years of varsity experience (8GP, 4G, 3A). Senior 19U AA Sophie Pyott is a very mobile defender whose skating ability allows her to get to loose pucks first and skate the puck out of danger. Junior 16U Upper A Owen Sievers is seeing more playing time this season and will likely be paired with Corwin or Curtis during the game. The Wildcats also have depth on the back line. Junior 16U Upper A Sebastian Fries and ninth grade 14U AA Kiran Buttazzoni will receive playing time throughout the game.
Upper Montgomery’s top line of senior 18U AAA center and team captain Owen Robbins (4GP, 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 (5GP, 12G, 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 is still out until next week with an upper body injury. The good news is 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 five games he has played in during his inaugural season. Two thirds of the line will be intact against the Wildcats. On January 9th, the Lightning should finally have their full lineup on the ice and ready to play the final two regular season games heading into the playoffs. In their absence, junior 16U Upper A forward Aiden Zheng (8GP, 3G, 5A) has stepped up and provided a spark. He has scored in three of the previous four 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 Wildcats have offensive weapons but are more focused on playing a strong two way game. They are less potent offensively than in prior years, but have strung together six straight impressive games including their current five game winning streak. Senior 18U AA forward Henry Horwell leads the Wildcats in scoring with (9GP, 5G, 8A). Horwell is a small speedy winger who will fly past defenders not prepared for his speed. Walter Johnson’s second leading scorer is sophomore 16U AA Tyler Pappafotis (8GP, 8G, 4A). He leads the Wildcats with his eight goals. Fellow sophomore 16U AA Lukas Anderson (9GP, 6G, 1A) is second on the team in goals. The Wildcats second line has another sophomore 16U Upper A Finnian Carr (9GP, 5G, 2A) playing with a rotation of depth forwards. The lack of scoring depth is one of the reasons that Walter Johnson has been in so many tight low scoring games this season. If the top line is not on, the Wildcats have difficulty stretching games into running time even against weaker competition.
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 Lightning have a great chance at winning. In two of the past three games, Upper Montgomery has been far better defensively, which has kept the team in games. 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 remain competitive with Walter Johnson, especially if the Wildcats have several top level students absent from the game. Walter Johnson has proven they will be good defensively. Will Upper Montgomery be able to manage the puck in their own defensive end of the ice and get the required goaltending to give the Lightning a chance at a major upset?
#2nd Half Wins, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!