Melting the ice for spring, the SLUH inline hockey team set up shop at Fenton forum ice arena, where the team ended its 14 game season 6-8, just good enough to make the playoffs. 

Going into the season, the SLUH inline hockey team’s only expectations were to play some hockey with some friends. This is because some of the teams in the division are very competitive, and train their team year round. 

“We didn't really have high expectations because roller hockey is such a different game than ice hockey. If you're a good ice hockey player, you're gonna be a decent roller hockey player. But a lot of these teams train year round, like have developed kids over the past four years, especially a lot of these public schools have their kids play roller hockey since like sixth grade and a lot of guys on our team just started playing roller hockey. So we didn't really have any expectations for the season, just have a good time,” said senior Sean Wiegers. 

Roller hockey may have similar rules to ice hockey, but the play styles are very different. One of the biggest differences is that in roller hockey there are only four players in the rink plus a goalie, instead of the five players on the ice in ice hockey.

“(The games) are a lot slower than ice hockey. It's really puck possession that is the main factor. And that's what lost us a lot of games. Because we're all ice hockey players, A lot of kids on the team played AAA hockey, they’re used to such fast-paced games. And we just didn't really have a great roller hockey style. We just didn’t compete well with these teams who know the game better than most,” said Wiegers.

The SLUH roller hockey team consists of ice hockey players who are looking to stay in shape and play some hockey outside of the season.

“None of our players have played roller hockey since last roller hockey season. I doubt anyone has roller skated in that time. So it's kind of like roller hockey is just something the ice hockey players do in their offseason just to stay active and hang with some friends,” said Wiegers.

The team started the season off with two forfeits because they didn't have enough players. But in the games the team played, they had an even record of 6-6.

“At the beginning of the season, during spring break, there were two games scheduled, and we didn't have enough guys to play so we had to forfeit those games against teams that we probably should have beaten so right off the bat we were bound to be ranked pretty low,” said Wiegers. 

Schools that the SLUH ice hockey team beat during their season proved to be a challenge during the roller hockey season, and games were often wild, high-scoring affairs. 

“Teams we would absolutely kill in ice hockey would beat us in roller hockey,” said Wiegers. “Most games were at least ten goals scored, like they were pretty high scoring.”

After winning the Challenge Cup in ice hockey, the MCC teams wanted revenge in the roller hockey season, and whenever those games rolled around, the players would look forward to these rivalries.

“MCC matchups were pretty fun. After we won the Challenge Cup in ice hockey I know all those teams like Vianney, CBC, we're looking forward to playing us because we won and so those matchups were pretty fun,” said Wiegers.

At the end of the regular season there is a tournament which 8 of the 10 teams enter. SLUH entered as the lowly No. 7 seed.

Being the 7th seed, SLUH was bound to face a powerhouse in the league: Rockwood Summit. A team which they beat during the regular season, but sadly the feat could not be repeated as they were eliminated 11-4.

“We just kind of played our own style and didn’t do very well. So we were eliminated right off the bat,” said Wiegers. 

Looking back on the season, one game that Wiegers remembers fondly was the game against Seckman, where the team was down in the final period, but took it to overtime where Wiegers scored the winner.

Overall, the SLUH roller hockey team would’ve ended the season at an even .500 if it weren’t for the two forfeits they were forced to suffer, but having only two graduating seniors on the team, the team has a core to build around for the upcoming year.