Following a rocky start, the hockey team received a much needed confidence boost following their second place finish at the Silver Sticks Hockey Tournament in Darien.

Due to early season injuries/illnesses the team went into the Thanksgiving tournament with a 2-4 record.

But according to senior and captain Anthony Lopez “When the season started, everything was chaos. Nobody went to practice and it showed in games.”

That changed as a result of that weekend because the team knew what this tournament meant for their season.

According to one of the team’s 3 sophomores, Robert Boyte, “this tournament can seriously change our season. Even though it does not count for the regular season it can set the tone for winning or losing for the rest of the season.”

The team won a thriller on Friday night against Hoffman Estates in a shootout, lost twice on Saturday, both by one goal.

While this seems bad, according to coach Mike Niedziela “played some of the best hockey they have played in a long time”

The team came out of round robin play with the the third seed in the playoff round, which began on Sunday morning. They played the team they had lost to Saturday night, and came out with a huge 6-4 victory to advance to the championship

In the championship, however, the team lost a close on 4-2, but according to fans, played a really good game.

Since then, the team has been putting in plenty of practice hours and are trying to schedule practice games regularly to keep everyone on their toes.

“This team has a shot,” Coach Mike Monette said. “If they continue putting in as much work as they have, I could see them going a long way this season.”

The team’s next game is on Saturday at 7:20pm in the Darien Sports Complex.