Last year they made their first section championship appearance since 2019. Now the Duluth East boys hockey team is back to work in their first week of practice.

Entering his third year as head coach Steve Pitoscia said they returning lots of knowledge and skill from their Section 7AA runner-up 2022-2023 season.

“It started off day one, working hard, as like we never left last year,” Pitoscia said. “I think we’ve got an exciting group of forwards. We’ve got some young D and they’re going to find their way, and we got two returning senior goalies. So I think we’ve got a pretty bright outlook this year.”

The Greyhounds earned 20 wins last year to finish with a 20-7-1 record, but graduated their top four defenders.

They begin in a week visiting White Bear Lake, a team they’ve fallen to their in last two straight season openers.

“The last couple of years we haven’t been able to win the season opener. Especially ending last year, that section final 7AA loss, I think we just want to get rolling. Get right back into it and start the year off hot,” senior forward Noah Teng said.

“As a group, we’re all really tightly together and kind of like we were last year. That was one of our best qualities is all of us as a group, there’s no individuals,” senior forward Thomas Gunderson added.

Duluth East opens their season Friday, November 24 in White Bear Lake.