Mound Westonka has five of the six Kelly Green defense.  The Green’s defensive corps will be led by senior Carter Hansen who scored 18 points 3 goals in regular season play for the White Hawks’ varsity last season.  Hansen is a savvy defender and showed some punch in the later part of the Kelly Green’s loss Monday.  He joined by MWT senior David Peterson and juniors David Godoy-Hendrickson and Jacob Gutekunst.  All three White Hawks skated JV last season.  

With only one other varsity defender besides Hansen returning to play, the three are strong candidates for spots on the MWT varsity.  Trent Bowe is the fifth White Hawk to be. Bowe skated on the Mound Westonka Association’s 2016 peewee A championship team.  Minnehaha Academy sophomore Nick Coryell completes the Kelly Green defensive corps.  Coryell skated with two other Kelly Green players (Ethan Dominy and Ivan Sunder) on the 2015 Ice Edge summer team.

The two Green Team goalies are Corey Hendrickson Minnehaha Academy junior and MWT graduating senior Cole Broome.  Hendrickson was in the nets for 17 of the Red Hawks 25 regular season games posting a 9-7-1 record giving up 3.3 goals a game while stopping 90% of the shots on net.  Broome split time skating for the White Hawks varsity.  He posted a 9-3-0 record giving up 2.4 goals a game while stopping 91% of the shots on net.  With veterans manning the nets, the Kelly Green team should be strong defensively.

The offense will be led by Mound Westonka forwards.  The White Hawks will lose 15 varsity players through graduation including their top seven scorers. Graduating seniors Michael Lindell, Aleksi Partio, and Brady Aufderheide were in the MWT top seven scorers.  The three combined last season to score 29 goals in 25 varsity games and will be skating this spring on the Kelly Green team.  

In Monday’s game, the three skated loose and appeared to be enjoying themselves.  So much ends in a senior year that the student/athlete has worked on for years, there is none wrong with graduating seniors unwinding as they wait to graduate and move on.  On ice Monday, it made the game more about skills and less about winning.

MWT seniors Luke Holman, 8 points 2 assists, and Ethan Fetters Vandenheuvel, 8 points 5 goals, also skated for the MWT varsity.  Junior Michael Schroeder skated for the White Hawks JV team last year; sophomores Mitch Krebsbach and Michael Doshan skated for the MWT Association’s bantam team.  That is a lot of White Hawk offensive power on the Kelly Green Team, but don’t overlook the Minnehaha Academy duo of junior Hunter Greshowak and freshman Ivan Sunder.  Greshowek scored 9 goals and 13 points playing varsity last season; Sunder made the Red Hawks varsity but injured his shoulder early in the season.  Sunder played well in Monday’s game against the Royals.  

With four forwards graduating from the Red Hawks, Greshowak and Sunder are likely to become key to the Academy’s offense next fall.  Minnetonka senior Jayce Hopia and Prior Lake senior Dylan Stocker skated for their JV teams last season.

Lakeville North’s Jack Sellman, MWT’s Ethan Dominy, and Woodbury’s Nathan Porter are the three Kelly Green alternates.  Sophomore Sellman skated in Lakeville Association’s North bantam program last season.  Ninth grader Dominy skated in Mound Westonka’s bantam program last season scoring 59 points 30 goals in 36 games.  Junior Porter skated in Woodbury Association’s junior gold program.

Kelly Green Summary: This team has the elements of experience players moving on combined with players that are competing for vacancies left by graduating seniors and new players getting their first high school hockey experience.  They should be tough when the veterans hit the ice and should struggle when the younger players take the ice.  That difference is the winning edge in goals scored.  The Kelly Green has one good thing to counterbalance that, veteran goaltending that will always be on the ice.  It will be an interesting team to watch.