U19 Team Shooting For The No. 1 Spot

Finishing in second place is bad enough when you do it once.

It's unheard of when you do it twice – in the same season – as the U19 Ice Dawgs did last year.

The Ice Dawgs are back on the ice as the 2013-14 season is under way and head coach JR Rasmusan sees his squad returning to their old form.

"By the end of the season we should be very competitive," said Rasmusan. "We're capable of playing with anyone."

In order to play with anyone, the Dawgs will stick with an aggressive style of play that has worked wonders for them in the past.

"We like to put pressure on the puck," said Rasmusan. "We have some very good skaters that are capable of putting pressure on the puck. We just have to get in better shape to do so with the amount of players we have this season."

Rasmusan said the low numbers come by way of players choosing to go with other sports. Those numbers don't seem to be slowing the Dawgs down at all as Glasgow has won two out of their first three games. Both wins have come by huge margins over Miles City (11-3) and Williston (10-3). The Dawgs' lone loss on the season so far came against Crosby 5-0.

Ice Dawgs goaltender Autumn Gault said that while the team is a cohesive unit, there are still things that need to be tweaked in order to reach the level of play they want to be at.

"We need to work on our passing and not letting anyone beat us back [on the defensive side]," said Gault.

Glasgow forward MaKenzie Wesen reiterated the importance of the Ice Dawgs working together and what it could mean for the team later in the season.

"We play with a lot of heart," Wesen said. "If we continue to work on our fundamentals then we will do just fine."

On the defensive side of the puck, the Ice Dawgs have a quartet of girls that take a certain amount of pride in stopping opposing offenses. The unit plays as such as Rasmusan pointed out that no single player outshines another and each contributes greatly to the overall game plan on defense.

The Ice Dawgs travel to Hazen this week for a two game set on Saturday and Sunday.