Last year, FHC Hockey had a strong season, going 24-3-2. They defeated everyone in their conference and looked to go deep into the playoffs. The team’s only losses came to Powers Catholic High School, once in the regular season and the other in the MHSAA Quarterfinal. The Rangers do not play Powers this season, but they look to go even further than the Quarterfinals this year.

“I think I can say for the whole team that our goal would be to win [the] conference,” sophomore Tim Kramer said, explaining the goals for the Rangers this year. “Some people may think [this] is a stretch considering we lost so many seniors, but I think that we have a lot of young talent so I wouldn’t count us out of the picture.”

Some of the main contributors to the team will be senior captains Charlie Brewer and Mason Kistler, along with assistant captains senior Jacob Demeter and sophomore Hayden Sarjeant. They will obviously be a key factor for the Ranger hockey team moving forward, especially when they face tough opponents in consecutive games.

“I’m feeling great [about this season],” Charlie said. “We picked up some good new players and I just have a great feeling about this season.”

The Rangers have three home games against three good teams to start their season off. The first one will be a showdown at Patterson this Friday November 17th against the Grand Rapids Christian Eagles, who had a decent 16-9-1 record last year.

The second match will also be at Patterson Ice Center and it will be against the East Grand Rapids Pioneers, which is sure to be a grudge match. The Pioneers finished with a very good 15-4 record last year. Last year the Rangers were dominant over EGR, sweeping the season series 3-0, winning a whopping 9-1 in the first round of the playoffs. The match on November 25th between these rivals will definitely be close.

The final match of this tough three game stretch is against the archrival Forest Hills Northern/Eastern. FHC swept the series 2-0 last year, and the Rangers outscored Northern/Eastern 11-7 overall. This will be one of the most crowded games of the season and emotions will be running high.

“The games I’m most excited for are Northern Eastern and East Grand Rapids,” Charlie said. “I’m excited because they’re our rivals and it would be awesome to beat them.”

“I’m excited to be a part of a team, bonding with [my teammates], and playing in front of crowd,” Tim said, explaining his feelings on being a younger player this year. “That’s something I’ve never really had the experience of doing, so I’m really looking forward to that”.