Sports
St. Michael-Albertville Skaters Aim for Title
With 10 players returning, the Knights are ready for a run at top spot in Mississippi 8 Conference.
The St. Michael-Albertville boys hockey team has many reasons to believe they could win a Mississippi 8 Conference title this year.
The first two reasons came as victories in the Knights' first two games. The Knights cruised to a 5-2 victory last week at home over Robbinsdale Cooper and a weekend 6-1 rout over Mora/Hinckley.
But the biggest reasons for title dreams are the 10 returning players, six forwards and four defenders trying to add to the 33 wins over the last two seasons.
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"We have a pretty good nucleus back," said St. Michael-Albertville coach Jerr Johnson.
They will have a new goalie playing behind them. Three-year starter Jake Turnquist graduated last year but Johnson, in his sixth year heading up the program, has confidence in senior Jake Adams and Junior Andrew Semo (3 wins, 0 losses, 0 ties; 2.38 GA).
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One of the bright stars on the team is junior forward Jake Larson, who finished 2009-2010 with 12 goals and 15 assists. He's a player the Hockey Hub Encyclopedia named one of its top 75 juniors in their annual season preview.
"Jake is really good around the net and is a natural goal-scorer," Johnson said. "He has a great work ethic and is driven to become a better hockey player everyday."
The team will be following the leadership of senior defenseman Jeff Raab (2 goals, 11 assists; 13 points) and senior forward Brian LaVallee (10-9-19), who were named captains. Assistant captains are senior forward Miles Fricke (7-9-16) and Larson.
"We want to pick up where we left off last season," Larson said. "We finished really strong. We put in lot of time over the summer to get better. A lot of guys met up three times a week to practice."
Johnson sees a lot of potential in his program as the number of athletes continues to grow. He thinks this could be a special year for the Knights. "We really feel that our section and conference are wide open this season and think we have as good of shot as anyone heading into the season," Johnson said.
A big test will come on Saturday, Dec. 11 when conference rival Rogers comes to the the St. Michael-Albertville Arena. The winner could get a big boost in the race for the conference title. The puck drops at 7 p.m.
"They're a rival for us and we've never beaten them," Larons said of the Panthers, who were formed just three seasons ago. "That would be one of our stepping stones this year."
