“We have a great group of players returning,” noted Donaghue.  “Our leading scorers will be back, as are our top two lines from last season.  We will need to work on developing our defensemen as we only have two returners on the blue line.  We graduated our goalie that started for 4 years, but we have extreme confidence in the way our goalies have developed to fill the shoes.  We are going to have to be gritty and detail focused to find success.  We will be a veteran team that will need to use our maturity to get us through the adverse times.  If we can get the consistency and work ethic from the entire team each day, we will be a competitive hockey team.”

Kellen Stenstrom (25g, 32a), Shane Zierden (13g, 21a) and Jack Welde (9g, 13a) were top producers offensively last year and are expected to be the leaders again this season.  Ryan Nelson and Tim Nanson are both seniors looking to earn the starting spot in the net.  Leighton Buckmeier and Sam Dirkman are the top returners on the blue line.

“Michael Schmidt had a strong sophomore season and we will look to him to add secondary scoring, along with senior forward Griffin Babolian,” added Coach Donaghue.  “There will be good competition to fill spots on the blue line with seniors Riley McGovern and Luke Norgaard, as well as junior Brock Schuerman and Braden Albert.  Aiden Schake had a great summer working out and played some fall hockey that has helped prepare him to take the next step.”

Donaghue will be assisted by Trevor Larson, Peter Johnson, Tosten Mann, Joey Kalan and Scott Christison.

“We have a challenging schedule this year,” concluded Coach Donaghue.  “In looking at the section, we play Alexandria and Northern Lakes.  Detroit Lakes has a talented group of players moving to high school.  We also have Warroad and Thief River Falls.  I think Alexandria and Northern Lakes are the top teams in Section 6A.”