The North Branch Viking hockey team is coming off one of their most successful seasons in program history winning 20 games and reaching the section championship. The team will look a lot different this year without star players, Brady Meyer and Cody Moline.
Right now, a lot of people are not counting on the Vikings to get back to the Section 5A Championship game. But head coach Matthew Cottingham thinks this young team will be able to get the job done. The team started off the season great winning against Minnesota River and Simley. They play Saint Francis on Tuesday night.
North Branch Hockey Preview with Matthew Cottingham
What are you most excited for this year?
Seeing how far this young team will go and how they develop over the season as hockey players and as young men.
How is the roster shaping up? Do you have a lot of new players? Are you returning
a lot of players? Younger? Older? Etc.
Our roster this year will be deep, even though we lost a lot of scoring power. We are bringing in a lot of young new players this year. Will have 9 sophmore/freshmen on varsity this season. But we also return 7 varsity players from last year. Our top two lines should be able to skate with anyone in our section
Who are a couple athletes that will stand out?
Justin Sachs, Jake Richards, Jake Turek, Cody Croal, Tucker Sachs, Joey Kerchner, Alex Langevin, Dawson Johnson
What are your goals?
Be a top 3 seed in our section, Make it back to the section championship game again, but with a different outcome and to be back in the top 20 rankings for single A hockey.
Favorite upcoming games, matches, or meets?
We always look forward to play Chisago Lakes, Its become a great rivalry. We also are looking forward to play Monticello again, which last season had three hard fought great games to be apart of.
Photo Credit Matthew Cottingham:
