After their 6-5 win against the Rogers Royals, sophomore Sarah Mccallon said the girls’ Hopkins-Park hockey team has experienced improvements since their first games, but hopes to continue seeing growth as the season progresses.

“We lost our first game against Eagan. I think we weren’t really working as a team right away, but I think we’ve grown a lot since then,” Mccallon said. “We saw a lot of good stuff to spring from in the first game. Since then, we’ve incorporated the team a lot, and everyone’s been playing their position really well.”

In their seventh game of the season Nov. 28, head coach Chris Erickson said he predicted the game against the Rogers Royals would be challenging.

“We expected a hard fought battle. We scrimmaged them earlier in the season and it was a pretty even game,” Erickson said. “We came out in the second period and played well, but the third period we just laid an egg and played pretty badly.”

According to senior Katie Fredrickson, while the team played well in the first two periods with a lead of 6-3, they let their confidence get the best of them in the final period of the game.

“We came out a little flat in the first period,” Fredrickson said. “We still won, but it was not a good third period at all. We can’t be so overconfident coming out of the locker room.”

Erickson said after leading a strong second period, the team lost focus toward the end of the game.

“I think the girls get a little bit hyped up and they start to run and take themselves out of position instead of being worried about their own responsibilities when (they) try to cover for somebody that’s not doing their job,” Erickson said.

According to Mccallon, working on breakouts remains a strategy the players hope will improve their game.

“I definitely think we need to work on breakouts,” Mccallon said. “Breakouts is a crucial element, and (the opposing team) had really good breakouts last night.”

Hopkins-Park’s next game will be against Duluth at 7:30p.m. Dec. 1 at the Heritage Center.