Senior forward Ellie Andersen and junior defenseman Gabby Brimhall will captain the Otters.  Other letter winners returning are juniors Piper Andrews (F), Hope Goepford (D), Marilyn Karsnia (D), Desirae Maack (F) and Talia Nelson (F), sophomore Maddie Hulter (F), and freshman goalies Ana Jyrkas and Lexi Metcalf.

“Although our goalies will still only be freshmen, they have improved immensely and will allow us to compete against tough CLC competition,” said Lill.  “We will return three established blue-liners.  Our first line (Andersen, Hulter, Andrews) will be relied upon to score big goals.  I expect them to match up with anybody.  We aren’t established 3 lines deep yet and there will be intense competition for the six open forward spots.”

Juniors Jadyn Bye (F), Kelsi Beck (F), Kiara Grady (F) and Liz Moxness (F), and sophomore Skye Norgren (D) will all be vying for varsity ice time.

Lill says Willmar and River Lakes will be the favorites in Section 6A.  “Those teams lost virtually nothing to graduation and we will have a big hill to climb to win the Section, but we’re going to do just that.  We should rank near the bottom of the Central Lakes Conference as most teams are AA schools (Brainerd, Sartell/Sauk Rapids, Alexandria, Bemidji, St. Cloud).  Drop the puck, let’s find out!”

Lill will be assisted by Todd Hershner, Fritz Karsnia, Brooks Andersen and Nikki Kaasa.