Bismarck, North Dakota – The day after Thanksgiving, Century faced off against West Fargo in the Boys Hockey season opener. At the end of the season, The Patriot hopes to participate in the state tournament.
Hockey season’s highs and lows can seem far away, especially if your team is accustomed to success. Only six games were won by Century boys hockey last season, and previous success was in the rearview mirror.
Troy Olson: “It was an odd team. We had three senior goalies; they’re all gone now. It opens up opportunities for new kids. High school sports, every year is a new dynamic and new team. We like where we’re at now though.”
The roster today features players with varsity experience on it, which is a shift from then. An improvement results from that experience.
Tyler Kleinjan: “I feel a lot more confident. We have leadership that we didn’t have last year, and practice is going smoother. We’re just overall ready to go and ready to get the season started.”
Troy Olson: “I think just having the experience is going to help our guys a lot. So many of them played in 23 games last year when they had zero experience coming in, so that’s always nice we don’t have to start over at square one.”
The Patriots are making progress in the preseason despite having a lot of things to improve on.
T.J. Olson: “We played some good defense in our scrimmages this weekend and we found a way to score some goals. Last year that was one of the things we struggled with, it’s no secret. Against Minot in the scrimmage, we scored three goals, which was really nice to see.”
Some objectives aren’t dependent on on-ice tangibles with the hopes of improving.
Troy Olson: “So far we like what we see as the attitude and effort, and those are the things we can control so if we keep doing that, I think we’ll be fine.”
T.J. Olson: “We obviously want to come out and get wins, but we really want to dial in on what we need to get better on so we can succeed at the end of the year. Because it does suck not winning right away, but we want to win at the end of the year when it matters for the most part. So, we really want to dial in on those little things and fine-tune those mistakes.”
