Next year, it will be the Lights out on the ice

Montana State University-Northern athletics has been making multiple moves, and soon, Northern will have a club hockey team making moves on the Havre Ice Dome ice.

Club hockey is not an actual NAIA sport and is not an athletic department sport at MSU-Northern, as the hockey club is funded independently. But the Lights will be a part of club college hockey, something that was announced last spring and is currently moving forward.

The Lights have their head coach already, as well. Jeff Krissek will be leading the hockey club when the next season comes around in October. Krissek has seen a lot of movement happen for the club, especially through the fundraiser game last Saturday night that pitted the Montana State University Bobcats club and the University of Providence Argos club in the Havre Ice Dome.

"Our goal right now is to bring a competitive team to the ice for the 2020-2021 season in October," Krissek said. "We want to have a good competitive team. In our first year, we're not eligible for postseason play, but we want it to be known that that second year we're out there, we're going to be looking at a postseason run and that's our goal. Where we're at right now is lots of recruiting, lots of conversation with both high schools players and some juniors players."

And the process has been a bit slow as of now, but there is still a lot of promise moving forward for the club to pick up some great players for the upcoming season.

"It's still a little early in the season for kids to really be committing to what they're gonna do next year, especially for a new club program," Krissek said. "We have a couple kids here that are local to Havre, some of them graduated recently from the high school. They're good players but haven't been going to college and they're thinking they'll go back. We're going to have a couple local kids on the team, which is just a great thing to have for the community and it keeps good, upper-division hockey here in Montana. The more upper-division hockey we have in Montana, the more that clubs are going to grow from that."

The fundraiser last Saturday really saw this idea come to fruition, as the stands were packed with people from Bozeman, Great Falls and Havre to cheer on the game and the soon-to-be club on the ice.

The game on the ice was a sight to see, too, as the Cats and Argos have become fast rivals, as two of just three college club teams in Montana.

The first period was a heavy defensive battle to start it off, Providence and Montana State traded the puck several times throughout the match, but the Bobcats managed to take a shot and score to lead 1-0 going into the second period. The Argos continued the battle of defense with Montana State and eventually scored themselves, tying the game 1-1 at the end of the second.

The third period was an intense one. The Bobcats scored another goal, then Providence tied it back up with a score of their own with just three seconds left in the game. Montana State was not able to score, but the Bobcats would win the shootout after the overtime period to win the game 4-2.

The matchup in the Havre Ice Dome was an exciting one for the crowd. With tickets sold, stands packed and a great game at the end of the day, the Lights hockey club has a bright future coming their way.

Krissek was glad to see such a great turnout and with the process moving smoothly for the club, he is very excited to get to coach a group of players who are ready to excel in the classroom and on the ice.

"I am super excited," said Krissek. "I got brought on in September, so I had sent the school a pretty good write-up about my plan and vision for how the team would go back in July-August time. I think the program is going to be a great thing, not only for MSU-Northern but for the town of Havre. It's going to be a great activity on a Friday-Saturday night in January. It's cold outside, it's warmer here at the ice rink, come have a good time, come watch a good quality hockey game and come cheer on the Lights. I'm excited to be here and see this program get off the ground."

The club's official uniform was unveiled as well Saturday night, and the many different raffles and competitions for the sake of the club's future went off really well. Fans were excited to see a new program start to kick off and the other teams like Montana State and Providence were very glad to see the Lights' club coming together, too.

At the end of the day, Krissek was thankful for all the support and looks forward to the future of Lights' hockey in Havre.

"We've had some great support from the community," Krissek said. "Not just the hockey family here, but the NLASF there at the school has been a great supporter. Seeing the community come around to say hey we're adding something to the area has been wonderful. You saw the support here tonight (Saturday). We had the stands filled and I think we didn't lose a whole lot of people throughout the night, so I would love to see a similar crowd at our home games next season."

With the recruiting process and the final steps being put into place, many can look forward to an exciting new program in Havre and on the ice. The wait will not be much longer, as the Lights' college club hockey future is getting closer and closer to being a reality.