The wait is over for men’s college hockey in the Electric City.
“You start to think about all the, the long summer, the recruiting, and just all the meetings, and things, and then you’re out there,” said Argos head coach Jeff Heimal. “You’re having fun and then there’s a goal and we’re winning and it’s just exciting to see all of it.”
Hailey Sutton / SWX
The Argos men’s hockey team took to the ice last week, and defeated Montana Tech 5-0 in the first official game in program history. It was a moment Heimel said, he’ll never forget.
“Yeah we had to bring them down a little bit in the locker room, like ‘hey, we’ve got a long season.’” he said. “But no it was very, very exciting. They worked hard for it.”
The team has been practicing together for a month now, but to actually get on the ice and play a game was special for the budding program.
“It’s been fun to see all the hard work with recruiting and working with these athletes kinda start to take shape,” Heimal said.
Getting that first win was the just the first step in achieving their goals this season.
“I suppose it’s a lot better than losing your first game, but we’re so excited. I think our guys played really well. There were a lot of firsts in that game which was great, the shutout being one of them, so we’re just really excited about what’s coming here and obviously starting with a good note.”
That good note began with scoring the first goal in program history in that win, something captain Erik Gatson says was more than a notch on the scoreboard.
“Obviously it’s just a goal, but it meant so much more in a way, just because it was the first of our program and so everyone was just sorta over the moon for a little bit,” Gatson said.
While last week’s victory was sweet for so many reasons, Gatson said he knows they have so much more ahead of them to accomplish.
“It really solidifies everything we’ve been doing in practice, so it was kind of a good weight off our shoulders to get that first win out of the way but now it’s back to business and we’re focused on this next weekend.”
The Argos will play at home for the first time in program history this weekend. They’ll play at Great Falls Ice Plex on Friday at 7:30, and then Saturday at 4:30.
