It’s the most wonderful time of the year, otherwise known as, hockey season. EGR hockey, known for its promoting hype videos and hostile performance on the ice has fully begun its season and is looking forward to the rest of the winter.
As the hockey season progresses, the team is keeping its eye on the prize. Ready to dive into midseason, the team continues to put in the work on and off the ice to improve.
With a busy schedule and many more regular season games coming up, EGR hockey is looking forward to showing off its talent. Some season highlights so far include the game against FHNE where the Pioneers took home the win 7-2. The team has also taken down Livonia Stevenson, Plymouth Salem, Grand Haven, Grand Rapids Christian, and Jenison. Another big game was the nailbiter against Byron Center where BC won 3-2. The Pioneers are looking forward to the chance to play the Bulldogs again to prove that they are the better team
“I’m excited to play Byron Center again as I think we outplayed them and deserved to win that game,” Glenn Green ‘24 said.
Green is one of the many additions to this year’s roster. After playing club hockey for most of his career, he decided to join the high school team on the ice for his senior year and saw the differences.
“The transition from club and high school has been a big change for me as I’ve played club my whole life until now. Some things I notice are the atmosphere high school hockey brings, with seeing your friends at your games and seeing the school spirit has been a great change,” Green said.
The infamous “stew” continues to be packed to the brim with EGR students as they travel near and far to support the hockey team. “We go crazy when they score and when there are big hits on the ice, there’s just a lot of energy in there even though we aren’t supposed to chirp, or hit the glass,” Luke Bertke ‘24 said.
Though not allowed to touch the glass and aren’t supposed to be yelling at the opposing players, it’s pretty unavoidable throughout big plays and times when the team gets aggressive.
More recently, the Pioneers took a tough loss to Forest Hills Central, losing by just one point. The team plans to continue perfecting all parts of their game, mainly focusing on working together as a team and fixing small details to beat teams like Byron Center and FHC later on.
The hockey season’s busy schedule and very frequent amount of games make this time of year even tougher for the players, who spend many late nights and early mornings at Patterson Ice Arena. The team has to share the arena with other teams in the area, causing fluctuating practice times and often changing schedules.
The difficult loss in the state finals last year motivates the team to prove what they can do even more and that they are capable of earning the wooden mitten they just barely missed out on last year. Looking ahead, the team is planning to continue to dominate and win their conference as well as add another regional trophy to their collection.
