After the first game of the season, junior Anna Nicholls said one thing that stood out to her was that the team put in effort throughout the whole game.

“I think we all played our hardest. First game is always a little rough, but we worked together as a team, as a family, because that’s our motto,” Nicholls said.

According to head coach Ryan St. Martin, the Oct. 10 game against Orono ended in a 6-3 win for Hopkins Park.

“I think it was a lot of fun for our first time out. Being outdoors is a really unique thing, and it was really fun to have some snow during our first game and to be together as a group,” St. Martin said.

St. Martin said Hopkins Park practiced drills and bonded as a team over the past two weeks to prepare for the game.

“We had a nice little camp before the last couple weeks to get together as a group and go over the systems that we are going to use this season and to bond a little as a team,” St. Martin said. “I thought it all came together and worked out in our favor, especially in the first period.”

According to junior Sarah McCallon, the closeness of the team helped contribute to the victory.

“It was impressive to see that everyone came together as a cohesive unit after working together for only one week,” McCallon said.

According to Nicholls, Hopkins Park won two out of the three periods against Orono.

“I think the game went pretty well. We definitely won the first period, lost the second period and then came back and won the third period,” Nicholls said. “I think we worked really hard during the first and third (periods) but the second period got away from us. We just know to play all three periods next time.”

St. Martin said the team had a strong start and was able to work over the challenging parts during the game.

“I think we had a nice game to start in the first period, and we had a little of an adversity in the second period but were able to overcome it as a group,” St. Martin said.

McCallon said that to prepare for its next game, the team will continue to work on specific drills.

“I think we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing, especially penalty kill and power play,” McCallon said.

According to gopark.org, Hopkins Park will compete against Waconia at 7 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Minnetonka Ice Arena.