Girls' hockey: Young crew mixes with strong corps for Holy Angels

At a practice last week, half of the ice sheet was occupied by the top line for Holy Angels' girls' hockey team. They worked breakout drills and dump-and-chase drills and, for the most part, executed them with ease.

On the other end, head coach Jaime Grossman had the balance of the team working on the basics.

Such is the case when you come into the season minus eight players from the year before, the highest loss of seniors the Stars have ever had.

"It's back to teaching the game, and I like that," Grossman said of practices so far. "We've been spoiled as coaches here the last few years. But on top of it all, I think we can still win."

And for good reason. Despite losing the healthy crop of seniors from last year's team, Holy Angels' top three scorers from last winter are back.

The group is led by Lauren Smith, who as a junior last season had 85 points. That was the third-highest total in the metro and the most among returning players for this season. Grossman calls Smith the school's first legitimate candidate for Ms. Hockey.

Gracie Olson (48 points) and Kelsey Romatoski (36) are also back.

"I think we'll basically be the same team," Smith said. "I'm really not too worried about it at all."

That team from last season finished 24-4, losing to Burnsville in the section tournament 1-0 thanks to a 5-on-3 goal by the Blaze.

Grossman said not a day went by in the offseason he didn't think of that game. And it came up again in the Stars' preseason team meeting.

"We acknowledged that last year was probably our most talented team we've ever had," Grossman said. "But with that, our chemistry wasn't as it needed to be. Some things just weren't in place. This year's team is a little bit tighter than last year's."

Grossman also said he probably placed too high of expectations on last year's squad.

With the start of this season, though, there is no time to reflect on what could have been.

Holy Angels has its top three scorers back, five solid defenders all garnering ice time and a new-but-confident goaltender in Shannon Beckel.

The new season also brings a new section for Holy Angels, and a tougher one.

Gone is Burnsville, but the Stars are in Section 2 with Eden Prairie (ranked No. 1 in the preseason by Let's Play Hockey magazine) and Edina (No. 3). Holy Angels is No. 8.

"From Step 1, we'll have to work harder," Grossman said. "We're in a top-to-bottom solid section."

This won't be the first time Holy Angels skated with a handful of question marks.

When the program started a little more than a decade ago, players who had hardly skated were regulars on varsity shifts.

So if the Stars could get through that, this should be a breeze, right?

Grossman, confident after the Stars held their own against defending Class 1A champion Blake and 2A champ Stillwater in a recent round of scrimmages, only smiled.

"The program has come a long way," he said.

Brian Stensaas • bstensaas@startribune.com