Christian Hirschboeck
Staff Writer
Coming out of last hockey season with a record of 7-18-2, it was unsure of what direction the men’s hockey team was heading in. The team was 18-6-3 in 2019-20 right before the NCAA tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and since then the results have not necessarily fallen in favor for the Foresters. With a shortened 2020-21 season consisting of six games, and a 7-18-2 record in 2021-22, it was unsure when the winning ways of the men’s program would pick back up. Heading into the 2022-23 season, the team would roster nine freshmen out of 33 players, and it would be coach Sean O’Malley’s second season serving as head coach. With a lot of questions about them, the Foresters would begin giving answers out quickly, beating #11 Aurora University three times, with those wins coming twice in shootouts alongside a 7-0 victory. Notably, the team also put up a good fight with #9 ranked St. Norbert, unfortunately losing both games with scores of 3-1 and 5-2. Recently, the team played #3 Adrian College, losing the first game in an exciting shootout, but beat the Bulldogs the next day with a score of 5-3. At the time of writing this, the Foresters currently sit with a 7-8-4 record, which already matches the number of wins the team got in 2021-22. With at least six more games remaining, the Foresters have a great opportunity to show their improvement as a group, if that was not already clear by their performances this season. Wishing the boys the best of luck for the rest of the season, and go Foresters!
