Senior David Finder will unfortunately always remember how his junior hockey season ended. After suffering a crushing 3-2 defeat to rival Wotton in the regional semi-finals last year, the CHS ice hockey team is determined to have a have a better ending to this season.
“We expect to win almost every one of our games, make the playoffs and hopefully win a state title,” Finder said.
The team plays two different schedules, a league and non-league schedule. The Bulldogs are 1-3 against non-league teams this season. The non-league schedule includes some of the top teams in the area such as Bullis, Gonzaga and Georgetown Prep.
“Fortunately, we had the chance to play some highly skilled private school teams,” senior defenseman Kohler Brafford said.
So far against teams in its league, the hockey team is undefeated. Its most recent victory came against Walter Johnson Dec. 11 by a score of 10-0. Freshman Zach Arden led the attack by recording a hat trick.
The Bulldogs had their first home league game against Blair Dec. 4 during which CHS picked up a dominating 10-0 win.
The team started off its league schedule with two road victories. The first victory came over B-CC 5-1 Nov.16 which they followed with a 8-2 win over Sherwood Nov. 30.
“Our league games so far have all been clean victories,” Brafford said.
The team knows that it will be playing in more competitive games soon as its the league has a wide variety of hockey talent that can sometimes be a problem for the Bulldogs.
“It’s hard to play consistently in our league since the skill range of the teams is so broad,” Brafford said. “Some games will be easy victories, and then we’ll have to step up our play for the next game against a top team in the county.”
The Bulldogs have been getting significant help from sophomore Alex Dourian and junior Matt Senker this season in league games. Dourian is the team leader in goals so far this season, and Senker leads the team in assists.
“Even though we lost a lot of great players [last season], many underclassmen are doing a great job filling those seats,” Brafford said.
