The Hillsdale College Club Hockey team got its season started Sunday with a 6-2 exhibition game loss to Albion College. The Chargers are looking to rebuild after going winless last season.
It looks to be a tough road. The Chargers will have to deal with the loss of both goalies since Gram Polando graduated and Greg Moore will not playing this year.
The other problem might be roster depth. There were only seven players available on Saturday night and Rick Lingvai played goalie as a stand in. The team will also have to deal with the loss of assistant captain Mike Fransisco. He was one of the players who helped get the team started last year.
But Sunday's game was a good indication that the team may be rebuilding.
"We lost 6-2," said junior center Dan Greene, "but it was a good game and we showed that we can still field a team, albeit with only six players."
Junior center Jamie Kasuboski, who scored one of the Chargers' two goals against the Britons Sunday night, agreed adding, "We have a handful of new players from all over the country, so it should be nice to see the bench grow in diversity."
This year, Greene says, they have no official roster but they have "about 12 guys interested in playing, maybe more." Last year they had 17 but only about 12 regularly showed up to play or practice.
In Sunday's game however, the seven that did play played as well as they could. After the Chargers gave up a few quick goals to Albion, defenseman Jack Degrave scored the first Charger goal when he moved up to offense for one play.
Lingvai made some big saves and kept the Britons scoreless in the second and third periods.
The team will have a little time to rest; the next game is still tentative, but look for the Chargers to be more competitive this year.