A season filled with high expectations is ahead for UCO hockey.
A national championship tournament team a year ago, the Bronchos lost only one player to graduation heading into this year.
It is a team that, for the most part, has played side by side together for the better part of three years.
A young team turned veteran, one that is no longer searching for an identity, rather refining and perfecting the one they have made for themselves.
This coming season is filled with games that will define what the Bronchos have become.
No game may be more important than the season opener on September 18th.
The Bronchos begin their 2009-2010 campaign when the defending 2009 ACHA National Champions come to Edmond, Okla. to square off at Artic Edge Arena.
Lindenwood is good. There really is no other way to describe them.
They are well coached, well scouted and stocked full of talent that carried them through last year’s national championship season.
Lindenwood graduated senior star Henri Amault.
Amault contributed 75 points last season, off of 21 goals and a whopping 54 assists.
Although Amault is gone, The Lions return four of their top five contributors from last season.
Chad Boekman, Steve Balint, Carson Hamill and Jake Ebner all return to the Lions for this upcoming season.
Combined, the four players had a total of 268 points, with a total of 123 goals scored.
The leading goal scorer of the 2008-2009 Lions returns to the ice this season as a junior.
Jake Ebner, scored 35 goals last season, leading the team and coming in fifth overall in total points.
Ebner, 6’ 2’’, 200 lbs. from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia will surely put in another star performance this year as well.
Last year, the Bronchos faced Lindenwood for their second series on the year, and came within one goal of the Lions in a game that ended in a shootout, at Lindenwood.
It remains to be seen if the Bronchos were just a year away from turning that one goal loss into a victory.
With four of their top five players returning, Lindenwood looks just as tough as they did a year ago.
UCO however, gets the home advantage and they return all of their top performers as well.
With everything lining up, the deciding factor may be whether or not UCO is ready to set the tone that early in the season.
The fact remains, the Bronchos are a team that now has something to play for, more than they ever had in their first three years and this game is a major test of the Broncho’s skill and will to achieve greatness.
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