Following its deep stretch into the postseason in the 2021 season, pressure is on for the Texas A&M hockey team to produce the same if not better results — especially under a new head coach.
“Fans can expect a team that will play with skill, grit and intensity and a roster full of players that are hungry for success,” head coach Gary Russell said.
Last season, the Aggies won their second Texas Collegiate Hockey Conference, or TCHC, championship in the program’s history. Following its win, the team was ranked No. 13 in the West Regional Tournament, making the maroon and white five-time qualifiers for the tournament. A&M worked its way through the first round against No. 8 Oregon before getting taken out by No. 4 Montana State. However, despite A&M’s short run in the tournament, it received multiple TCHC All-Conference player awards, including Rookie of the Year for junior forward Robby Sours and First Team for senior forward Ethan McDonald and graduate defenseman Jacob Norwood.
During the summer of 2022, the team officially announced Russell as its new head coach. Russell was a five-year member of the team and captain from 2017 to 2022. Russell was also a part of the crew that won the program’s first TCHC championship in 2020. Since then, Russell served as the assistant coach until his promotion.
This season, the Aggies have a stacked schedule that began with their away matches against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Sept. 23-24 which ended in 7-1 and 5-1 victories, respectively. The remainder of the season features six home games, 11 away games and two weekends against long-standing rivals, the Texas Longhorns.
“A good word for it is electric,” Norwood said when describing the crowd at their games against Texas. “Warm-ups finish and you see people piling in, and when you come back out, we’re all standing [in the hallway], you can’t see out the door, but you can hear how many people are there. You can hear the yells without even having to see it, and when you go out there, it’s a different atmosphere.”
A&M has its first official home game of the season against the Longhorns on Friday, Sept. 30 at Spirit Ice Arena. The last regular-season matchup between the maroon and white and orange and white resulted in a double win for the Aggies as they defeated the Longhorns at home and away. The puck is set to drop Friday at 7 p.m., and tickets can be purchased by walk-in or over the phone at $20 for students with an ID and $25 for general admission.