The Swift Current Home Hardware Legionnaires want to finish what they started.
"They're really hungry," said the U18 AAA hockey club's Head Coach, Todd Hornung. "They're already making comments about the expectations of the group and where they want to go. We want to win. As a coach, I definitely want to win games. The group is definitely hungry. They realize that one goal away is kind of stuck with them all summer, and they want a little redemption there.
"I think ultimately the goal is to get ourselves a chance to be in that final and give ourselves a chance at this league. And from what I've seen so far, that's definitely what this group wants."
The Legionnaires had a 2-0 series lead in the Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League semifinal against Moose Jaw last season.
They lost the series 3-2, but returned a lot of key pieces from that club this season.
"It seems like we're going to return all the guys we signed," Hornung said. "We're hoping to be very competitive in our league, and I think we've got a group that gives us a chance this year."
The Legionnaires do lose a lot of talent to the junior ranks with Carter Moen jumping to the Broncos, and the graduation of players like Wesley Olson, the Kirwan brothers, Jackson Fox, and goaltender Berney Weston.
They were also able to retain three of their top five scorers thanks to the returns of Mason Fauser, Trae Peterson, and Jake Hargrave.
Swift Current has a mix of veterans jumping to the Legionnaires from other U18 AAA teams and some rookies like Maple Creek's Finn Gustafson.
"I think everybody, almost everyone in our lineup has had experience in our league now," Hornung noted. "Whether it was just called up from bantam as APs or from the AA team. Everybody knows what the league's about and knows what they're stepping into. We expect big things from those guys that are returning. They put up some good numbers for us last year. Now, if we can just continue that trend and tighten up some things in their own end, we're going to be very competitive."
Gull Lake's Cade Mitchell is back to take the starter's role in net for Swift Current.
Injuries to Weston had Mitchell playing a lot more as a rookie than Hornung had anticipated originally.
"It's huge for us," Hornung said. "I don't think the expectation was that he was going to play that much. But I think Cade won just under 20 games for us last year. That experience for him coming in now is, he's basically been a starting goaltender in our league. We're very happy with having him back. I know he's comfy, and he wants the net, and he wants to prove himself. He has the capacity to win games on his own for us when he wants to. He's played really well. I watched him in (WHL) exhibition. He played here against the Broncos with Moose Jaw, played really well. We just expect good things from him."
Mitchell stopped all 11 shots he faced in 25 minutes of action in his only WHLH pre-season play this season.
He went 19-5 for the Legionnaires last season.
Hornung is hoping their group can use their four pre-season games to get into regular-season form.
"We just want to get some guys familiar with the way we want to play," Hornung said. "We want to get them comfortable playing with each other. There's obviously some new guys coming in, whether they're young guys coming up or guys that we've added from different teams. They've got to get used to each other as line mates, as D-partners, communicating with our goalies, all that kind of stuff."
The Legionnaires are in the Battlefords tonight and head to Moose Jaw on Sunday afternoon.