By Kyle Auger
Editor-in-Chief

The 2012-2013 hockey season was a forgettable one for the boys’ varsity team. They finished with a 5-13-1 record, suffering from devastating injuries and an unexperienced squad.

“Last year was a rebuilding year for us, we got a lot of kids playing in roles that they were not quite ready for.” said senior captain Cam MacDonald.

It seems the team is stocked with individual talent, but it will be interesting to see where the team will end up after being tweaking so much. Their first test just passed, where they lost to Central Catholic by the score 5-1.

The Central Catholic Raiders came into game ranked according some sources 8th in the state, including senior goalie Colin Soucy who is featured in the ESPN preseason MIAA All-Skate Team. Despite their obvious talent, the Ghosts are unafraid of their opponent, coached by Mike Janikowski.

The team has changed greatly from the last season, as is common in high school athletics. The team lost serious talent including their captains, but this year’s installment is coming back with three senior captains: Cam MacDonald, Ryan Hesseltine, and Jay Drapeau. Hesseltine is aware of his responsibilities and embraces the challenge fully.

“I feel that I just need to lead by example and work hard every practice and every shift of every game. Just go out there and give it my all,” said Hesseltine.

With their influx of talent and leadership, the change in the team’s culture and quality of play is apparent. The team participated in a preseason tournament in Hanover, NH with other teams from around New England, and although they are not allowed to talk about the details of the game, they were able to disclose that they won all the games in which they played.

“In Hanover we all played really well. The chemistry of the team was great and everyone was having fun.” said Hesseltine.n

After their preseason wins, the last couple weeks have been integral in preparing for the upcoming regular season. The team will be debuting new lines on both the offensive side and on the blue line, and it seems the very chemistry Hesseltine touched on could be the decisive point for this year’s team. Chemistry however, is hard when such huge personnel changes are happening at once, most noticeably, the one in between the pipes.

“We need to rely on our goalie [sophomore] Kyle Martin, he split time last year, he’s probably going to take on more of a starting role so we look for him to be good in net,” said MacDonald.

Despite their early loss, the team is still feeling good about their season.

“We are a confident bunch,” said senior Brian Prato.” We all know our roles on the team and we have a clear game plan so we feel confident.”