Gear up with the Gustavus Men’s Hockey team because their season is back. Last year the Men’s Hockey team finished strongly with an overall conference score of 16-7-4. This placed the hockey team in second place.

However, with a large number of graduated seniors, the status of the team is still unknown. It will require new leaders and hard work to make it back to the level of playing they were at last year.

“We lost a big senior class last year, a lot of whom scored many of our goals. We’re in the process to fill those goals. So far of our news guys, Jake Bushey, a freshman from Duluth is currently leading us in scoring. We’ve got a long way to go though since we lost an awful lot of seniors to graduation. We are still in the early stages to find out who’s going to be our leaders offensively. It’s a pleasant surprise to see a freshman in that role right now; personally, Jake’s off to a great start so I’m happy for him,” Coach Brett Peterson said,

Senior Forward Andy Pearson believes the team still has the ability and experience to succeed.

“We are hungry to get over the hump and bring the trophy back to St. Peter. We have a strong, close group this year. Our first years have started the season strong and it will be exciting to see them develop throughout the year. Our senior class is a seasoned group who have had the opportunity to play in three MIAC Championships in our three previous seasons. We are excited to see the team come together and see what we can make of the year. Our team has the talent needed to be a really good hockey team, we just need to establish an identity and go forward from there,” Pearson said.

The critical thing for the team right now is to learn how each person plays and how to incorporate new players into the team dynamics.

“I’m most excited about getting the younger guys up to speed of how our system works and get together as a team. Once the younger guys are caught up there is a great bond between all of us. There are an even amount of younger players and returners, we must mesh well and work together to win championships. I feel like we’ll be just fine in getting where we want to be,” Senior Captain Jake Walsh said.

Although the top three leading scorers graduated last spring, this season all the hockey players are stepping up their game. But they also need the Gustavus community in order to continue to step up as well. The encouragementfrom fans during the season has always been appreciated.

“The environment in our facility is very unique. We’ve had a lot of great support from the last few years, therefore we expect that again this year. It’s very common for us when we’re on the road to have more fans at the game than the home team will. We’re very fortunate to have such great support; especially from our students who create a really good college hockey environment here on campus,” Peterson said.

While the prospects of the season are still unknown, Men’s Hockey team will redefine themselves and play travel to Concordia College for a back-to-back match up on Nov. 14 and Nov. 15.

-Jessica Yang