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Cardinals hockey set for opener tonight

FAIRMONT – The 2015-16 boys hockey season marked Kris Olson’s first year as the Fairmont Area Cardinals’ head coach. The year may not have gone as expected, ending the season with a 4-20-1 record. But, Olson came away with more knowledge in preparing him for his second year.

“(Coaching) high school is a little different than Bantam or PeeWee, which is what I previously coached,” Olson said, adding that when coaching high school, “It’s important to keep the morale up, keep the kids positive, keep them developing and (teach) real life lessons that come from the sport.”

This season, Olson is taking a different approach with the Cardinals, practicing 2-on-2 and 3-on-3.

“They’ve been working hard,” Olson said. “Their ears are open and they’re ready to listen, keep learning and moving forward. It should be a good year.”

The Cardinals took a hit to its roster during the offseason, however. The team graduated seven seniors and has gone from 20 players to 16. While playing time won’t be an issue, the smaller number of players do alter the approach to various parts of the game.

“It does limit us as far as power play, penalty kill, things of that nature,” Olson said. “It puts some strains on what we can do with that as far as moving players around. We just have to make the best out of what we have.”

The 16-man roster includes two goalies as opposed to when Colby Kuhl was the Cardinals’ only goalie last season.

“We just figured it out and it’s my sixth year coaching Colby. He’s an outstanding individual, outstanding player, student,” Olson said. “He’s an assistant captain now this year as well, so he’s going to be (in) a little bit more of a leadership role.”

In addition to the junior, freshman Tyson Geerdes will serve as the Cardinals’ other goaltender. Having two goalies has its advantages, allowing Olson and his coaching staff to “open up your practice playbook quite a bit more.

“It’s been good so far,” Olson said.

The team’s captains for this season are seniors Bryan Karp, who has developed significantly, and Kaylan Legred. Legred also was a team captain last season.

“He’s our digger, the guy that’s going to go in the corner without holding anything back,” Olson said about Legred

Tyler Head is expected to be a big piece in the Cardinals’ plans this year. Head, a senior defenseman, worked to increase his speed on the ice during the offseason.

“His hands and his hockey sense are phenomenal, but to add that speed to his repertoire is going to make it so much better,” Olson said.

The Cardinals open the season with three straight home games, starting with a 7 p.m. contest tonight at Martin County Arena against Luverne. Fairmont Area plays Windom at 7 p.m. Thursday before hosting Winona at noon Saturday.

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