Opening Night for the Norsemen!!!

[SAINT PAUL . MN]

This is a fun time to be in 32^nd state and the Twin Cities on the eve of a long Labor Day weekend. The aroma and buzz of the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, is carried over to sheer excitement and anticipation for the start of the CCHL season tonight at Herb Brooks Olympia in St. Paul for the Norsemen when they welcome the Siberia Ice Cats to town.

A season removed from a tear down and a club at the bottom of the league, the Norsemen have built upon a youthful explosion of upcoming talent, with veterans, stability and a promise to bring pride back to a state that is known for and is passionate about hockey.

“Heading right out the gate and facing an opponent like Siberia is huge for us,” said first-year Captain, Charlie Coyle. “They’re a really good, young team that if we’re serious about proving ourselves as a legitimate contender in this conference and this league, it’s time to answer the bell in game one. We’re excited to get things going.” The twenty-five year old, East Weymouth, MA-native was named captain over the summer. He will be joined by alternate captain, Anders Lee and Patrice Bergeron for home games and David Backes for road games.

Despite this newly anointed ‘contender’ label they have be given, the Norsemen have remained focused on the future and not giving up too much of their youth to sail forward.

“We have been mindful of the blueprint we drew up a couple of years ago when we decided to build our club from the foundation up,” said general manager, Blake Wendt. “Winning and contending is great. It’s what makes this game fun. But if you’ve become too top-heavy with aging talent and payroll, and you’ve undermined yourself where you have no future, what was the point? We want to be a stable, long-lasting force in this league. We’ve tried it the other way, failed, and struggled to regain our composure. What we’ve tried to do this season, is remain focused on the future, and still add pieces that make us a hard team to play against, give our young players exposure immediately to what success looks like and what being competitive in games at this level looks like, and just continue to build up and the culture becomes winning, and winning becomes the norm. To be expected consistently here.”

The Minnesota Norsemen have also announced their CCHL Opening Night line-up:

#2 Brian Dumoulin (defense)

#3 [C] Charlie Coyle (center)

#4 Ivan Provorov (defense) *rookie

#6 Kevin Klein (defense)

#8 Anthony Mantha (left-wing) *rookie

#9 [A] Anders Lee (left-wing)

#10 Alexander Wennberg (center)

#11 Casey Cizikas (center)

#15 Austin Watson (left-wing)

#16 Mitch Marner (right wing) *rookie

#17 [A] Patrice Bergeron (center)

#18 Phil Kessel (right-wing)

#22 Andreas Athanasiou (left-wing)

#25 Jonas Brodin (defense)

#26 Brandon Carlo (defense) *rookie

#30 Devan Dubnyk (goalie)

#31 Antti Raanta (goalie)

#34 Daniel Winnik (right-wing)

#44 Sami Vatanen (defense)

#55 David Backes (right-wing)

Official lines will be released after this mornings morning skate via Twitter.

A new tradition that the Norsemen are starting this season, is adding filtered water from major lakes and rivers from the state. Included are Lake Superior, Lake of the Woods, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Lake Itasca (at the Mississippi River headwaters), Leach Lake, Upper Red Lake, Mille Lacs Lake, Lake Minnetonka, White Bear Lake, Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet.

#duNord