The boys’ hockey team won 5-2 in its first game of the season against Orono Nov. 20, scoring early to create more opportunities on the ice.

According to coach Terry Keseley, it was a big first win for the team.

“In past years we have lost to Orono, or it has been a close game,and so for us to win is a big first step for the program,” Keseley said.

According to senior captain Conor Klaers, the new team found chemistry to pull out a win.

“Our lines had good chemistry and we were very sharp and focused for most of the game,” Klaers said.

According to Keseley, the team plans to keep efforts high in practice that will transfer to games.

“We plan to be the players that are hard to play against,” Keseley said. “Effort and focus in practice will help our team find more success.”

According to sophomore Willy Basill, the team pushed for early goals to get ahead.

“We played really well and moved the puck around to get goals early so we could work on other aspects of our plays,” Basill said.

Klaers said he believes the effort in their last game was unstoppable and working on creating a hockey sense will further more wins.

To achieve success, Klaers said the team works on basic skills and focuses on specific trouble spots on the ice to get the puck out of their zone into the other team’s zone.

“We have a lot of little details that we still have to work on,” Klaers said. “In practice, we spend a lot of time working on taking care of important areas on the ice and generating scoring chances.”

According to Keseley, the team expects to expand from this game to win more.

“We play many hard teams, but if we play our game and focus on specific things we need to work on, we will be a very hard team to play,” Keseley said.

According to Basill, making little adjustments to key plays will make a huge difference when it comes to games.

“We want to work more on our defensive zone and getting stronger along the boards to get the puck out so we can be a more offensively strong team,” Basill said.

The team’s next game will take place at 7 p.m. Dec. 1 at the St. Louis Park Rec Center against Delano.