Despite a rocky start to its season, the South men’s hockey team is showing improvement in their recent games, according to junior Ryan

Buckingham. With an overall record of 6-11, senior captain Trey Buckingham believes that they will continue to improve and out-perform expectations.

According to senior captain Michael Dillon, although the record doesn’t show it, the team has had some successful games despite the final scores.

“Our record isn’t that great,” Dillon said. “If you were to look at the games, they’re all pretty close losses, so we’re not too disappointed with our record

as of right now.”

According to Trey, after seven straight losses, head coach Jim Philbin made a few changes to their practices. His efforts changed the frequency of

success and pace.

“[Philbin] made a decision to stop what we were doing and just work on a few specific things like breakouts, cycling and power play and go from

there,” Trey said. “Since that practice, we’ve won the past four games.”

This year’s team consists of mostly juniors with many returning sophomores from last year’s varsity team. According to Ryan, this has been an

advantage to their play.

“We all know each other pretty well,” Ryan said. “I think it helps with the team chemistry because we’ve grown together as a team.”

The team has also gained a new goalie, sophomore Matt Grinde. According to Ryan, he has been a great addition to the team.

“He is outperforming everyone’s expectations,” Trey said. “His save percentage is in the high 90s. [Grinde is] number one goalie in our league right

now.”

While the team is aware of its weaknesses in play, Dillon believes that they make up for any lack of skill in effort.

The team competed in a tournament in Jamestown, New York, over the weekend of Dec. 7 in which they had an overall record of 1-2, according to

junior Johnny Savino.

They lost their first and most competitive game to Ontario Hockey Academy. They were tied 3-3 going into the last period but lost 7-3 overall,

according to Savino.

On Dec. 12, the Titans beat New Trier Green (NTG), who is currently ranked first in state, for the first time in 23 years. Freshman Nick Stevens made

the first goal for South. At the end of the first period the score was 1-1. By the end of the second period, NTG was winning 2-1. According to Trey,

though the team was behind, they went into the locker room fired up and knowing they could come back.

“Coach told us we were going to win and that was all,” Trey said. ”When we came back on the ice we were hungry. They weren’t.”

Nine minutes into the third period, Ryan scored the tying goal. The third period ended, sending the teams into a shootout to determine a winner.

South came out victorious with junior DK Arenson scoring the winning goal in the shootout.

The men next hit the ice tomorrow against GBN.