Boys Hockey: Moving in the right direction

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No team in the Missota Conference made bigger strides from last season to this season than the Farmington boys hockey team.

After finishing 2-12 in the league in 2009-10, the Tigers went 7-7 to tie with Red Wing for third place in the conference. They finished the regular season with a four-game winning streak and carried that over into a 6-1 section tournament win over Rochester John Marshall that advanced the program to its first section semifinal appearance since the move to Class 2A over a decade ago.

The Tigers lost 7-0 to Lakeville South, but still finished 14-13 for their first .500 season since 2005-06.

"The team really came together and played its best hockey at the end of the year," coach Keith Revels said. "We played a little tight and looked like it was our first trip to the semis in the playoffs. We hoped to give them a better game than we did, but we never gave up and played hard until the final horn."

A group of 10 seniors earned varsity letters for this year's team, including three forwards who landed on the all-Missota Conference teams. Tyler Grubb led the squad with 26 goals and 25 assists and was named to the first team, while Zak Payne (11 goals, 12 assists) and Dan Handberg (12 goals, 22 assists) were named honorable mention.

Other senior letter-winners were Jake Sorensen (7 goals, 7 assists), Trevor Hockert (2 goals, 5 assists, Most Improved Award), Quinn Malcolm (5 goals, 8 assists), Justin Rees (six assists, Hobey Baker Award), Quinn Eden (2 goals, 4 assists), Matt Provost (5 goals, 8 assists) and Aaron Dahl (3-4, 3.36 GAA, .896 save percentage).

"We had a good group of seniors who were good leaders," Revels said. "It was fun to watch them mature as players and people over the past couple seasons. They came together as a group even when things were not going well."

Thirteen underclassmen won varsity letters, including all-conference forward Andrew Peterson. The junior was second on the team with 16 goals and also had 20 assists.

Grant Hauswirth (Rookie of the Year), Blake Weinand (Mr. Hustle Award), Jack Buss, Michael Giebel, Jake Eldred, Ryan Schoening, Kevin Olund, Trevor Howard, Sean Johnson, Jason Thomas, John Donnely and Victor Simones (10-7, 3.32 GAA, .892 save percentage) rounded out the varsity team and will be looked to step into bigger roles next season.

"We have a good core coming back, but have some spots to fill," Revels said. "We have good candidates to fill those spots but we need to be working in the off-season if 2011-12 is going to be as successful as 2010-11."

Tags: boys hockey, sports, prep, tigers