Park’s boys hockey team matched up against Chanhassen Jan. 30 and beat them 7-1. The game started early on offense with a big goal by junior Teddy Rich, and soon after, a long-range goal from sophomore Liam McCoy. The team finished the second period 6-0, putting the game away.
Assistant coach Hunter Smith said he was proud of how the boys played and believes the game was one of their best.
“We played well. This is one of our best games all year, start to finish, I thought we brought our best today,” Smith said.
Sophomore Teddy Rich said the team could have done better at focusing on what was important and staying level-headed.
“Our emotional intelligence could be a little bit better, making sure we’re not getting into scruffs with the other team,” Rich said.
According to Sophomore Liam Mccoy, scoring an early goal and getting the team going at a home game felt nice.
“It just felt good to get a goal and get the momentum going. The atmosphere of being at home in our stadium really amplifies it all,” McCoy said.
According to Smith, coaching the team has had its challenges but it’s been rewarding. He said he is very proud of how the team has played this season.
“It’s been a lot of fun to coach these kids, frustrating at times, but definitely a lot of fun,” Smith said. “They’re good kids and work hard everyday and I am really enjoying it.”
McCoy said Park was amazing at being aggressive and was able to take advantage of that.
“We checked well and they seemed to cough the puck up straight to our forwards (a lot). We were then able to get chances out of that,” McCoy said.
Rich says he has high hopes for the rest of the season and thinks this game was a great step.
“I hope we can make a deep section run and maybe win the conference. Everyone is bought into the process and we were all working hard today,” Rich said
According to Mccoy, the team played great but to do better in the future, they will need to get more shots on net.
“(We could have done better on) just getting more shots on target because it shows when you keep taking them, chances are they will start to go in,” Mccoy said.
Smith said Park could play better defense in future games to improve their chances of winning again.
“One area we could do better on is maybe blocking a few more shots to give the goalie an easier time, but other than that I think we put up a really solid game,” Smith said.
Park boys’ hockey’s next game is against Benilde at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.