The Blackhawk Cougars hockey team has opened the season with a 3-5 record through their first 8 games. Among those playing on the team, there are four Freedom students. Seniors Kenny Rose, Alex Lundy, and Stuart Skogsholm all returned to the varsity team this year and are joined by Sophomore James Kelly-Tindall playing his first year with Blackhawk.

These four players have been vital to the team’s limited success this year. Rose and Lundy have led the way with 15 points and nine points respectively. These numbers are good enough to put both of them in the top four point scorers on the team, with Rose being tied for the team lead in points as well as being the team leader in assists with 11 assists.

Rose’s 11 assists not only lead the team, but are good enough for the second best in the league. This number shows that Rose has confidence in his linemates and that his line has been able to produce well from his playmaking abilities.

Lundy is one of the linemates benefiting from Rose’s playmaking ability. Seven of Lundy’s nine points this year have come from goals off of his stick. These seven goals are good enough for second most on the team, just behind Blackhawk’s Senior Bobby Picorello, who has eight goals and seven assists totaling him to 15 points this year.
Kelly-Tindall has not been lacking in production either as he finds himself logging first line minutes. Kelly-Tindall has managed to keep pace with the rest of the Freedom players posting eight points in his first eight games playing for Blackhawk.

With the Freedom forwards producing at such high rates, Skogsholm’s five points through the first eight games may not look as appealing as the other’s production. Skogsholm has seen himself playing the bulk of the defensive minutes for the team. Because of Skogsholm’s defensive position, he sees substantially less scoring opportunities when compared to the other Freedom players.

“The coaches want me to shoot a little more from the point because I’m a big guy and can get the puck there. I’m not really trying to pick a spot and hit it. It’s more of just trying to get the puck on net,” Skogsholm said. Getting the puck on net provided him two goals against Central Valley on Nov. 16.

As a whole, the four Freedom players have accounted for just under half of the team’s total goals of the year with the four of them scoring 17 of the team’s 37 goals (46 percent) through eight games.

Despite the production of the Freedom players, the Blackhawk Cougars have lost five games, three of which were by one goal. This suggests that the Cougars are not far off of the pace set by the other teams in their division, but that they could eliminate some mistakes and have a more successful rest of the season in terms of wins.