On Thursday Feb. 27, the varsity hockey team played in the Wickenheiser Cup Championship at Centene Community Ice Center, where they lost 3-1 to Parkway West. This was the first time the Falcons returned to the Wickenheiser Cup Championship since 2014.

The starting goalie, senior Brody Johnston wasn’t thrilled about the loss, but was proud of himself and his team for coming as far as they did this season. Johnston said the game started off slow but they were able to hold their own most of the game. 

“Obviously, it was a slow start for us. We were eventually starting to pick up the pace throughout the game, but they just kept coming at us. I was just trying my best to keep the game and team together as long as I could,” Johnson said. 

Going into the game, Summit’s record for the season was 19-4-1. The Centene Community Ice Center is a bigger arena than the team normally plays in. Junior Lorelei Green said that although she had played at Centene before, this time was different because she’d never played there with as big of a crowd. 

“I’ve played there a lot, but not with it packed out like that. It was a little nerve racking, but once you got into the game, it’s just another game with a little bit [of] extra outside noise,” Green said.

Parkway West was in the lead 1-0 for the majority of the game. Summit did score a goal to tie up the game, then Parkway came back during the 3rd period and scored two more goals. Johnston is very grateful for his time on the hockey team and that the team was able to make it as far as they did after beating Clayton, the defending state champions, 2-0 on Feb. 22.

Green also added that it was extra special to make it this far this particular season due to the large number of seniors on the team this year. 

“We’ve been working on it all my years at the Summit, but just to get it done, especially with the big group of seniors we have, to be able to do it for them has been great,” Green said.