Head coach Steve Fabiilli will begin his third season building the LumberJack hockey program. Last season, the Jack’s finished in sixth place in the MCHA and will look to improve this upcoming season.
“We are continuing to build a program here at Northland and will look to improve from previous years.” Fabiilli said. “This season, we are looking to take a step forward in the win column and also be able to compete day in and day out.”
Fabiilli believes that the 2007-08 season will be one where the Northland College Hockey program will show their potential. The Jack’s return 11 players from last season’s squad and add 14 newcomers to the mix.
“We have players coming back most of whom are only sophomores and have gained much needed experience. We are also adding 14 new players to our lineup this season. Our team is all freshmen and sophomores with the exception of three. We are young, with a great amount of potential.” Fabiilli said.
Recruiting has been the main focus for the LumberJack program in recent years and will continue to be Fabiilli’s
focus.
“You need a solid foundation for a team to build and expand” Fabiilli said. “We have brought in players who will compete against each other for ice time and who will become this program’s foundation for future years. We are very excited to get the season going and look forward to watching this young team develop and grow together.”
FORWARDS
Northland loses two of its top scoring players from last year and will look to new players to step up and take on that roll.
“We need to produce more offensively” Fabiilli said. “We will look to our returnees and the newcomers to fill in the voids offensively. This is one area where we need to improve on if we are to be successful”
The Jacks returns two senior forwards in Mike Stevens and Ryan Hunt. The Jacks also return four sophomores in Josh Spiegel, Pat Sierocinski, Brandon Sachwitz, and Joe Belanger.
Key additions include sophomore transfers Jake Carlson and Jeff Diehl. Also joining the Jacks are first-year players Ray Tremblay, Kent Lillejord, Nick Matson, Rick Delecke, Tony Huberty, Chad Moore, and Adam Bever
“We needed to address some areas on the forward front. We wanted to bring in some size and skill,” Fabiilli said. “We believe we have addressed these two areas along with bringing in more players to compete for ice time. We are looking to these new players along with the returnees to add offensive numbers for us this year. We have high expectations for all forwards to improve our offensive production from previous years.
DEFENSEMEN
Northland will return one senior defenseman in Eric DeCaires and two sophomore defensemen in Matt Tanneberg and Brian Zwawa.
“We are returning three solid defensemen this season” Fabiilli said. “Matt was our third leading scoring last season and I will expect him to continue his offensive capabilities. Eric and Brian are both very solid in their own end and I look for them to have a great year”
Along with the returnees, the Jack’s add four new defensemen in Shaun Newman, Tim Werner, Jiri Zeman and Aaron Johnson.
“Our defensive core has become bigger, stronger and more offensive with the returnees and newcomers we have for this season. We wanted to have a good mix of offensive defensemen and defensive defensemen, and we believe we have guys who will be excellent in our own end and guys who will be able to produce offensively,” Fabiilli said.
GOALIES
Northland College will return its sophomore goalies Bo Storozuk and Adam Gorecki. Storozuk played the majority of games last season and will look to continue the success he had last season. Also joining the Jacks will be freshman Daniel McIntosh.
“We return two goalies for this season with one who played the majority of time in net for us.
Bo had an excellent year in terms of experience and playing time as he finished the year second all-time in Division III single season saves. We will look to Bo to be solid and consistent in net for us,” Fabiilli said.
“Along with Bo, we have Adam Gorecki coming back and newcomer Daniel McIntosh who will push Bo for playing time. I believe we have three solid goalies on our club, which you need if you want to be successful.”
SCHEDULE
The Jacks will have one of the most difficult schedules in recent history.
“Our schedule is very challenging for this coming year. We are playing against our conference rivals of which are getting stronger each and every year.” Fabiilli said.
The MCHA conference has begun to receive recognition with Finlandia and MSOE each receiving votes for the Division III National Polls.
Along with the Finlandia, MSOE, Marian, Lawrence, and Crookston, the league will welcome newcomers Concordia University and Adrian College.
“Our league has just become more competitive with the addition of these new schools. I think our league will make some noise in the college hockey ranks this year.” Fabiilli said.
Along with a tough conference schedule, the Jacks non-conference opponents will prove to be the toughest in school history.
The Jacks will be playing three top 15 teams according to the first NCAA Division III Polls. The will open up against Wisconsin-Stout and Wisconsin-River Falls. The Jacks are also playing Wisconsin-Superior, St. Scholastica and Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
“Our non-conference schedule is very competitive.” Fabiilli said. “We are very excited to be able to play against nationally recognized teams, obviously they will be high level of play and I think it will be good for us to get ready for the MCHA conference.” Fabiilli said.
The MCHA will have an unbalanced season this year with Northland playing Finlandia, Lawrence and Crookston four times while playing MSOE, Marian, Adrian and Concordia twice.
The MCHA playoffs are scheduled for February 22nd and 23rd with the Finals set to be played at MSOE the weekend of February 29th.