The Saint Joseph Hockey Team finished their regular season on Sunday, January 28th with a busy final weekend. They beat the South West Michigan Blades 3-2 in overtime, lost a tough game to Lakeshore Saint Joe in a shootout, and ended their regular season with a 7-0 win over Valparaiso. With the win over the Blades (picking up two points) and stealing a point by forcing overtime against Lakeshore Saint Joe, the team was able to clinch the Founders Trophy which is given to the team with the best regular season record in the Michiana High School Hockey League. With this Founders Trophy, Saint Joseph was able to secure the number 1 seed for the City Tournament starting on Friday, February 2nd.

Head Coach Chris Kleva had strong words to say in the locker room on Sunday after the Valparaiso game, explaining that this was the beginning of the so called “second season” and that if his team could play together as “one unit” on the ice they could be successful in winning the City Championship and maybe even the State Championship.

The team is seeded #5 in the state tournament for 4A which means they will host a first round match here in South Bend against #4 Evansville. The squad looks to compete in the eight team bracket in pursuit of a state title. The format is double elimination which means that they are guaranteed games on Friday and Saturday.

Overall, the hockey season has had many ups and downs. With fall sports players not being able to participate at the start of the season the team had a rocky start. However, the team was able to pull together, especially in the later parts of the season to get to a respectable 22-10-4 record. The All Conference 1st team consisted of Owen Balint and Evan Peters from Saint Joseph and the 2nd team consisted of Colton Edman. With only the playoffs left for a long and grueling hockey season, the team hopes to repeat as City Champions and hopefully pull off a state tournament run.