The Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association begins its 2017-18 season next week, and both the Freeburg-Waterloo Raging Bulldogs and Columbia Ice Eagles look to be competitive once again.

As in years past, games were slated to be played at the Granite City and East Alton ice rinks. Due to structual issues at the Granite City rink, however, the league was forced to reschedule all Granite City games in November to either East Alton or the McKendree University ice rink in O’Fallon. 

The Raging Bulldogs open their season Monday against Granite City in O’Fallon. The puck drops at 8:45 p.m.

The Ice Eagles also open their season against Granite City in East Alton on Tuesday at 9:45 p.m.

Columbia plays O’Fallon at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in O’Fallon.

The Raging Bulldogs face Belleville in O’Fallon at 9 p.m. Nov. 13.

The rival hockey clubs don’t face each other this season until Dec. 21 in Granite City.

Freeburg-Waterloo finished 14-6-1 last season, falling to O’Fallon in a thrilling three-game MVCHA Varsity 2A championship series.

Gone from the Raging Bulldogs are some important players from 2016-17, including goalie Peyton Hamilton and team leaders Scott Nanney, Adam Phelps and Austin Patton. Key returning players are senior captain Jack Lugge and assistant captains Jacob Pitt, Frankie Libera and Logan Crowl.

Scotty Roberts takes over as head coach after serving as assistant coach for the past few years. Nick Dreyer stepped down as head coach this summer due to a job opportunity for his wife in Utah.

“We lost seven seniors to graduation, so we are a fairly young team,” Roberts said. “Last season didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but we can’t dwell on the past. We are ready to get this season started and make our march toward the finals again.” 

Columbia finished last season with a record of 15-5-1. While the Ice Eagles lost key scorer Garrett Poole to graduation, they return the goal-scoring talents of Sean Hofstetter as well as a strong supporting cast of Ryan Hofstetter, Jacob Matthews, Hudson Miller and others.

“Our varsity team will be returning eight seniors this season, so we expect to be one of the older teams in the league,” Columbia head coach Kevin Feager said. “We’ll have six returning all-star players, along with six players who are new to the varsity team. We think we’ll have a good mix of veteran players and newcomers.”