Although some of Eagan’s fall sports teams are still competing in postseason tournaments, girls’ hockey practices are already underway.

Tryouts took place on the evenings of this past Monday and Tuesday. “We did warm ups and shooting drills and got our legs moving. Then, we resurfaced the ice and scrimmaged,” said junior Brooke Madsen in regards to how tryouts were structured.

The preliminary roster was posted after tryouts on Tuesday, and individual teams will be announced November 4th, just days before the opening game of the regular season.

This upcoming weekend, the girls have their annual preseason jamboree in Duluth. There they will face Duluth, St. Paul United, Benilde-St. Margaret, Centennial, and White Bear Lake.

In the meantime, the girls are training with the postseason in mind. They had their first official practice on Wednesday, consisting of both ice time and dryland exercises. The Wildcats hope to return to the state tournament this year and bring home a title even more impressive than last year’s “State Consolation Champs”.

Given the limited amount of time between tryouts and the first game, it would be reasonable to assume that Eagan worries it will be unprepared. However, this is not the case. “I actually think it won’t be that bad, because we’ve been playing with each other since this summer when we were practicing, and then again in captain’s practice,” Madsen remarked.

Senior Saira Moore concurred, stating, “We are starting to get back into the flow of things, skating hard and trying to bounce back into shape.”

When it comes to areas of improvement, Madsen shared, “We need to score more goals. I think with more experience and a couple of new girls coming up that know how to score, it’ll be a lot of help.”

According to Moore, Eagan’s greatest strength lies in the teamwork it possesses. She added that based upon her impressions from tryouts, “Our team looks to be pretty solid as far as hard work and talent.” Hopefully, that chemistry and talent will help provide the girls with satisfactory results right off the bat.