Ice Hawks skate into a brand new season

The Havre Ice Hawks have built a strong tradition of high school hockey in Havre. And as the weather grows cold and the snow starts to fall, it means the time has come for the high school hockey team to once again spread its wings.

Even though the Ice Hawks have not been the dominant team in recent years that they once were, they do bring back a core group of experienced players who give the program a reason for optimism heading into the 2014-15 season, the third under head coach Scott Gunderson.

"We lost some kids from our team last year," Gunderson said. "But we still have some good, experienced kids coming back. We don't have great numbers, but some other teams are struggling with that as well. I think we have a good chance to be about a .500 team this year and finish a lot better at state than we did last year."

Gunderson's team will compete against 11 other teams in high school hockey that reside in Montana and Idaho. Those teams will include Great Falls, Helena, Glasgow, Bozeman, which has two teams, Missoula, Billings, Kalispell, Butte, Miles City and Salmon, Idaho. Havre will play each team twice during the season, which runs through March and culminates March 6-8 in Missoula, where all the teams with the exception of Salmon, Idaho, will take part in the high school state tournament. The tournament is run by the Montana Amateur Hockey Association.

Havre, which finished with the sixth-best record in the regular season and was the sixth seed going into the state tournament last year, was eliminated after two games and did not contend to place, which is something the Ice Hawks are hoping to change this season.

"I think that we are going to be more competitive this season," Gunderson said. "We might have trouble with some or the bigger teams like Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena and Butte because they will have better numbers. We just have a short bench so that will make it more difficult against those bigger teams. But I think we can still play them tougher than last year and I think finishing around .500 and in the top four or five teams at state is realistic. "

While Havre did lose a number of regular players from a season ago such as Justin Miller, Dustin Armstrong, Trevor Jensen, Dane Lindquist, Nick Howell, Jon Stoner and Megan Kline, head coach Scott Gunderson's crew still has a number of veterans returning this season. The returners include seniors Gavin Gunderson, Caleb McClain, Alec Hanson, Kyle Konesky and goaltender Josh Emge.

Other players that will contribute this season for the Ice Hawks are Alex Cole, Blake Hanson, Nick Stump and Madison Knudson. Newcomers for Havre include Jeffrey Ralph, Kyle Kirkpatrick, Cliff Lehnert and Kade Friede.

"The first line will be the Hanson boys, Alec and Blake and also Kyle Konesky, who was a defensemen last year but we moved him to forward. We will count on those guys on offense," Gunderson said. "Defensively, we have the experienced ones that are Gavin Gunderson and Caleb McLain. Those are the two that I will be expecting more out of than some of other ones. We also have a good goaltender in Jose Emge. He has really improved the past couple of years."

The Ice Hawks have already gotten two games under their belt this season as they opened last weekend at home against Missoula in the Havre Ice Dome. The first game was Friday, when Missoula defeated the Ice Hawks 9-2. Then, Saturday Missoula dealt Havre a 10-2 loss.

The Ice Hawks will be back on the ice this weekend in search of their first win as they hit the road to take on Glasgow in back-to-back games Saturday. The first game will take place at 2 p.m. with the second to follow at approximately 6 p.m.