It’s been three years since the Aberdeen Cougar boys hockey team has made a state tournament appearance. 

The team’s 13 seniors vowed at the start of the season not to make it four.

Mission, then, accomplished. The Cougars are not only back in the state tournament for the first time since 2019, they enter this weekend’s event in Sioux Falls as the No. 5 seed.

“I thought we had a pretty good season,” said Cougars head coach Jeremey Backous. “We won double digit state league games for the first time in many, many years. It’s definitely a step in the right direction for the boys.”

Led by those 13 seniors and a handful of talented underclassmen, the Cougars put together an 11-9 overall record this season and feel they have a fighting chance not just to appear on state tournament ice, but to succeed on it.

“That’s a position the boys varsity program hasn’t been in in a long time,” Backous said. “That’s credit to the boys and the work they’ve put in.”

Backous said early in the fall, the team held some extra practices. Those sessions were well attended by nearly every player not involved in another fall sport, Backous said.

The payoff?

“The way these seniors and this team has competed all year, they’ve worked hard to get to this point,” Backous said. “We’ve had some kids really step up this year as far as point production goes.”

That point production has come, in large part, from senior captains Kasen Claymore (17 goals) and Mason Carrels (14 goals), though talent abides in the youth ranks, as well. Freshman Carson Myhre leads the team with 20 goals, and fellow freshman Carson Hundstad has recorded 10 of the team’s 11 wins on the year.

“Getting everybody on the team working toward that goal,” Backous said. “That’s what we’ve done.”

Aberdeen will face Oahe in the opening round of the tournament and, while the Cougars dropped both contests to the Capitals during the regular season, Backous likes his team’s chances.

“That’s a really good first-round matchup for us,” he said. “Both games were really competitive, and it is absolutely a game I feel we can win.”

Oahe took the opening game of the season by a 5-4 count in overtime at the Odde Ice Center, then claimed a 6-4 victory late in the season, the final goal coming on an empty net.

“I just think it’s a good group of boys,” Backous said. “They’ve worked incredibly hard to get where they’re at and for this opportunity. In a 3-game tournament, anything can happen. You just never know. I”m looking forward to it, and I know the kids are too. I’m really happy this group of seniors is going to finish out their careers with a state tournament.”