Park boys’ hockey started the season off on Friday, Nov. 21. Park played a back-and-forth game against the Armstrong-Cooper Wings. The orioles battled to win their first game of the season, ultimately coming out on top 6-5. After the wings struck first, junior Nicky Moran put the flock on the board in the first period.
According to varsity head coach Tyler Broderson, the primary purpose of playing a game is winning. He said while this wasn’t the team’s best performance, they did what they needed to do to secure the victory.
“Anytime you can find a way to win, that’s the end goal,” Broderson said. “We talked about how the goal for this year is we have to find a way to win in big moments, and I think we did that today. By no means was this our best game, but we knew what we had to do to find a way to win at the end.”
Senior Marty Hirte said the team started strong, fought through difficulties in the middle of the game, and high spirit and effort brought home the win for Park.
“(The) boys started hot, then faced some adversity, but as we got a couple (goals) in the third, all turned around, and we had all the energy,” Hirte said.
Junior Liam McCoy said a win to start the season is only the beginning of a long road ahead. According to him, the team hopes to maintain high energy and winning feeds their drive.
“A win just starts us off. It gives us some good momentum going into this week,” McCoy said. “We got a couple of games this weekend, and it starts us off with what we needed and what our goal was.”
According to Hirte, he played great throughout the game despite being tired. He said he delivered for his team by winning a majority of faceoffs and scoring.
“I played well. (I) battled through a lot of ice time, so I got gassed a little bit, but I had a big goal, won some faceoffs, and it was overall a good game.”
According to Broderson, players who stick out to him are Grant Haggerty and Marty Hirte. He said he appreciates their ability to play well on the ice while also being positive influences for the team.
“Marty Hirte is a huge leader on this team. He (shows that) on the score sheet too,” Broderson said. “Grant Haggerty is almost like our secret weapon this year. Having missed so much time last year with an injury, he’s also a huge leader. He’s someone we lean on hockey-wise, and he does a ton for us.”
According to McCoy, he played very well in this game. He said his teammates were a huge support by priming him to score.
“I played pretty well. I had two goals, but I got to give credit to all my teammates. They set me up all night and gave me opportunities.”
Broderson said the team needs to create a good mentality to start the year, and playing game one with a win is huge for the boys’ morale. He believes the team has the potential to be really good, but they need to keep grinding.
“Just trying to find and create good habits early in the year and find ways to just compete and win games late in the year because we have high expectations for ourselves. We have a really high potential in front of us, but we need to be able to focus on the small details.”
Park boys’ hockey plays its next game at Brooklyn Park Ice Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 25, against Totino-Grace High School.
