The Winter Classic has been an ongoing tradition for the Scouts for the previous four seasons. Players get to compete under the lights at Winter Club’s outdoor rink rather than inside the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse at Lake Forest College, where the Scouts practice and host their home games. The Scouts will continue this tradition on Thursday at 8:50 p.m. vs. Highland Park.
The Winter Club and Winter Club’s youth hockey team is particularly special to the Lake Forest Hockey Team’s players.
“Almost all of the players that play high school played on the Winter Club ice at some point in their youth career,” Head Coach Steve Sarauer said.
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Sarauer also says, “It means a lot” for future Scout hockey players who have already experienced Winter Club’s rink and everything it offers.
“Once these players see the Varsity team take the ice for the Winter Classic game and feel the atmosphere, it becomes something more,” Sarauer said.
Some of the team even coach the Winter Club youth team, with many players looking up to them, hoping to someday skate out under the lights in front of their school, repping the blue and gold.
“The Varsity team at LFHS is one of the top programs in the state and all the young players want to be part of one of the best games of the season,” Sarauer said.
Junior forward Tommy Swift describes how the Winter Classic “means a lot, especially being a former Polar Bear myself, along with all of the memories made at Winter Club with teammates and friends.”
“I’ve got a handful of teammates on the team right now that I also played with at Winter Club and I know that we are very excited and looking forward to the game,” Swift said. “It makes the game a lot different because we all play similarly and have a lot of chemistry because we grew up with the same coaches and were taught very similar things; that definitely is a big advantage when moving onto the high school level together.”
Senior Alternate Captain Murphy Moorhead said it is “nostalgic” to play on what he considers “the best rink in the world.”
“Growing up playing at the Winter Club was a privilege I didn’t know I had. Now, being a coach for the younger kids gives me a new perspective of how much it truly means to play my final game on the best rink in the world,” Moorhead said.
From a very young age, Moorhead has played hockey at Winter Club and Lake Forest High School with his two friends, Logan Uihlein and Michael Dhamer. He said they “will definitely be playing with a chip on our shoulders.”
“The three of us have been playing at Winter Club our whole lives, and I think for us 3 it will be a big deal to have our final game at the Winter Club,” Moorhead said.
The Scouts have recently won 5 of their last six games through SHL play and have secured the 8th and final spot in the SHL playoffs for the first time in team history with a 5-4 Overtime win over the York Dukes.
