Park’s boys hockey team faced the Waconia Wildcats and won 5-0 on Jan. 19. As the season continues, wins like this are getting more and more important for their section seeding. According to varsity head coach Tyler Broderson, he thinks they did well this game and expanded on going into sections.
“(We’re) just trying to build off of our teamwork and high intensity, getting better regardless of who we’re playing against (and) understanding what it’s going to take to win a playoff game and trying to implement that early so that when we get to sections the moment isn’t too big,” said Broderson.
Senior captain Henry Schrader said the team played well but still has lots to improve on.
“We played well. I thought we came out hard, which was good,” Schrader said. “The second period we stepped off the gas a little bit, which we probably need to work on always having high energy, but we still got the scores.”Senior Henry Shultz says the team has been crushing it all week in practice and just getting in the right perspective.
“In practice we’ve been working and grinding all week and just trying to get better for each game by practicing and getting our mindset in the right place so we’re just able to go out there and be the best versions of ourselves,” Schultz said.
According to Broderson, power is one big thing the team needs to keep up, and they need to work on their defense.
“I think just continuing to bring intensity to practice and every game will help our chances,” Broderson said. “Also we need to continue to work on our D (defense) zone (and) getting pucks out to not give up big scoring chances, especially early in games. Then just continuing to get better at everything all around.”
According to Schultz, he thinks the seasons is going well as sections are approaching.
“Clearly we have a pretty good record when it comes to winning conference games. That’s all that matters when sections are around the corner,” Schultz said. ”We’re on a hot streak right now. Next game (we’ll have) new prey which is going to be good.”
Schrader said as a team, being the midway point of the season we met some of our goals but at the end of the day there’s still a lot of seasons left .
“It’s been good, it started out not so great. We met our goals and expectations here and there but I think we’re starting to turn a corner as a team,” Schrader said. “We won five of our last six which is something to be proud of but we want to make sure we keep going in that direction for the second half of the season.”
According to Broderson, every game at this point is major and the team needs to make sure they know that.
“The rest of the season is all gas, no brakes,” Broderson said. “Every game is important and with that we need to keep our composure and not get ahead of ourselves for the rest of the season.”
Park’s next game is against the Chaska Hawks at 7 pm Jan. 23 at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.
