Hermantown hockey coach Patrick Andrews says this weekend’s season-opening road trip to Eden Prairie, for Champions Cup games against Class AA powers Cretin-Derham Hall on Friday and Hill-Murray Saturday, is a welcome challenge for his young team.
“We always start our season with a pair of games in the Twin Cities,” said Andrews, the DuluthTimes.com’s 2022-23 Preseason Coach of the Year. “It’s good for our boys to open on the road, win or lose, and good for us to get challenged in two tough games against elite competition.
“From a team aspect, it’s also awesome because we’re on a bus for three hours, down and back, and at the hotel together all weekend to face whatever is thrown at us. It’s actually good to face some adversity on the road, to begin the season, while challenging the players to be a little uncomfortable because they’re not sleeping in their own bed and eating mom’s food. To win a state championship later in the season we will have to live in a hotel for five days.”
This season will also be a monumental test for the defending Minnesota Class A championship Hermantown program.
“We have a lot of returning players, but not a lot of guys with experience,” said Andrews, matter-of-factly. “It will be a learning experience for everyone. We will put our guys in the best position for success, and the team-building piece is really the most fun for the players and coaches early in the season. We might not know what we have until about Christmas.
“The number one thing we’re watching early in the season is for our players' compete level, and the rest of it, we’ll figure it out. How will our players compete with the lights on, with people in the stands. Our only expectation is that our players give 100-percent effort.”
Overall, the Hawks will again rely on team speed, Andrews said, but the primary focus is to be defensively elite.
“We have two outstanding goaltenders in Dane (Callaway, a junior), who won a state championship, and Garron (Opsahl, a senior), who set two state records last season,” said Andrews. “We also return a strong defensive group led by our captain, George Peterson. Everyone raved about our offense last season, but we also finished first in the state for lowest goals-allowed last season. For us, it’s always defense-first, backchecking, defending our end and creating offense off our defense. (William) Esterbooks, (Nolan) Barker and (Drew) Nelson also are experienced defensemen, and Henry Peterson has a huge, huge upside.”
Wyatt Carlson and Kade Kohanski are elite senior forwards.
“We definitely have some scoring punch with Wyatt and Kade, along with others, and our offensive challenge this season will be to find a way to score with depth,” said Andrews.
The Hawks will again play one of the toughest schedules in all of Minnesota hockey, and with a target on their backs.
“The challenging schedule prepares us for the post-season, for when you want to play your best hockey when it matters most,” said Andrews. “We know everyone is chasing us – there’s a lot of lessons learned by playing the best competition possible -- and we must get better every day. One of our mottos is ‘Win the Day’.”
Winning the weekend also might apply for the openers.