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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield boys hockey team heads into its season opener Tuesday dead set on erasing the memory of a rough 2009-10 that ended with an 8-17 record.
The Tigers, who host Northland Pines in a nonconference game at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Marshfield Youth Ice and Recreation Arena, have a young squad heading into the new season, but perhaps a more focused one.
Marshfield has just five seniors on its roster and will turn to a freshman goalie in Mac Albroeo as it tries to bring a fresh approach into the new season. Seven other freshmen have also been added to the roster that includes six sophomores and just three juniors.
“It’s one of the advantages of high school hockey – kids have short memories,” Marshfield coach Michael Hanke said. “This year, we’ve got quite a bit of a different make-up of the team. We lost six seniors to graduate and a few aren’t back. We’ve brought in some new players and the atmosphere here is different. I think they are ready to forget about last year and ready to move on.”
Marshfield does return 11 letterwinners, so it is not totally void of experience, but only three are seniors – forwards Ty Schreiner and Brennan Smith, and defenseman Travis Kersten. Senior fowards Tom Claessen and Brandon Hebert are also on the roster.
A number of players saw extensive action as freshmen and sophomores last year. Schuyler Seyfert scored three goals and had two assists, Cole Irish had three assists and Bo Howard had a goal and two assists last year in Wisconsin Valley Conference action as freshmen.
“We have a class that logged a lot of ice time as freshmen last year,” Hanke said. “They’re well beyond their years as sophomores and it’s starting to show. It’s kind of fun to watch them grow.”
Kersten will be the leader of a defense that allowed a WVC-worst 4.5 goals a game last year. He sees this year’s roster coming together and said he thinks the Tigers will be better than a year ago.
“We’re not that big, but we have talent and we’re quick,” Kersten said. “Size makes a difference, but we’ll have to work through that. We have lines together and we’re working together a lot better.”
Some would view having more than half of its roster as underclassmen as a bad thing, but Hanke is staying positive, knowing he has a good group of boys to work with.
“They are coming in and working hard,” Hanke said. “We haven’t had any distractions this year. We’re preaching to the kids to take care of our off-ice issues. They did at the end of last year and it’s carrying over. We’ve seen a great attitude and a lot of great character kids out there. Hopefully that translates into some success.”
Following Tuesday’s opener, Marshfield will play at the Tomah Tournament on Friday and Saturday before opening its Wisconsin Valley Conference season at Wausau East on Dec. 2.
The Valley is one of the toughest Division 1 conferences in the state, but Hanke said he wouldn’t want to be playing in any other league.
“We want to play the best and that’s how you get better,” Hanke said. “Our record suffers, probably, because of it, but we look at it as a challenge and that we can’t take a night off. It better prepares us for the postseason.”