The LT hockey team put up a good fight against rivals Hinsdale Central on Nov. 14, Nick Calvey ‘24 said. LT lost with a final score of 8-5 with goals by Maks Washchuck ‘24, Benja Ovnik ‘24, Thomas Rokicki ‘25, and team captain Carter Storey ‘23 who scored twice.

The game started out with three goals by Hinsdale in the first period. Shortly after Hinsdale’s third goal, Washchuck scored, making the score 3-1. At the beginning of the second period, Storey scored and about five minutes after his goal, Ovnik scored and tied the game at 3-3. After the game was tied. Hinsdale went up 5-3, Storey scored for the second time. Hinsdale scored once more, ending with Rokicki scoring their last goal of the night making the score 6-5. 

Calvey is a defenseman and has been playing for LT since his freshman year alongside Danny Gurtner ‘24, one of the varsity goalies. 

“Out of all of the Hinsdale vs LT games we’ve played, that one was the most competitive I’ve seen,” Gurtner said. “There were a lot of ups and downs and things we could’ve done differently but that’s hockey at the end of the day.” 

The game was played at Willowbrook Ice Arena. Since Willowbrook is the home rink for both LT and Hinsdale there was a good turnout for both teams, especially for a Monday night game. 

“This was one of the first times we have had a crowd bigger than Hinsdale,” Calvey said. “The people who showed up brought a good energy to the game.” 

The team has had a good start to the season with recent wins against Lincoln Way, Oak Park-River Forest, Neuqua Valley, and Wheaton West. The team also had three wins and made it to the championship of their tournament in Ann Arbor on Nov. 5-6. On the way to the championship, they defeated teams from Ohio, Michigan, Ontario and Glenbrook North. 

“This year we’re like one big family,” Calvey said. “We have all played together, most of us, for three years. We’re all brothers and we work well together.” 

In past years the varsity team has been made up of mostly seniors, Gurtner said. This year the varsity team is made up of predominantly juniors and seniors with a few sophomores. 

“Everyone gets along very well, we all came in with the same goal this year to keep building off of what we’ve done the last few years,” Gurtner said. “We have very inspired seniors and the juniors and sophomores pick up the loose ends.” 

Right now the team is working toward making it into the Illinois West playoffs, Calvey said. 

“Our main goal right now is to get into the top tier of the standings,” Calvey said. “From there we hope to make a bit of a run into the state playoffs.” 

Upcoming games to look out for include, LT vs St. Rida on Dec. 22 at 7:55pm.