Royales begin hockey season

For the first time as a franchise, the Marquette Royales played in a game on Thursday at the Division Showcase in Rochester, Minn.

The Royales slimmed down their roster to 24 players at the beginning of September. A majority of the players on the roster have playing experience at the junior level.

They may be a brand new franchise, but expectations are high for Marquette as they begin their first season in the Minnesota Junior Hockey League.

“We really want to see where were at as a roster. I think we can go down (to Rochester) and do very well,” said Royales head coach Mike Stanaway. “You never really want to put a number to it, in terms of wins and losses. We just want to make sure we’re competing everyday and really starting to come together as a team.”

“The expectations are high on this team and they should be. We have a tremendous amount of talent and veteran leadership. Again, the expectations are high, which in my eyes, they should be,” Stanaway added.

“That’s exactly what we have to do is establish ourselves,” said Royales forward Lane King. “We want to put Marquette back on the map in junior hockey.”

“I think we’re going to be pretty good this year. All of our forwards are playing pretty well together and we should be good.”

Marquette will play four games in four days at the Division Showcase.

You can find the Marquette Royales schedule here.