Page 20 Lake Conference Hockey • Thursday, December 11, 2025 sailor. mnsun. com
HOPKINS ROYALS BOYS HOCKEY
Lake Conference Hockey
Competitive fire burns inside the old barn
JOHN SHERMAN john. sherman @ apgecm. com
One of the oldest indoor ice arenas in the metro area is the Hopkins Pavilion, and the Hopkins boys team embraces the home-ice advantage it has when playing at home.
Wood beams that were in place six decades ago rise to the ceiling. Seating for fans is only on the west side of the rink, so fans from the home team and the visiting team are sometimes seated side-by-side. The building is colder than most, but that’ s OK with the Hopkins guys. After all, hockey is a winter sport.
“ The pavilion is like our second home,” junior captain Will Hoiska said.“ We spend a lot of time hanging out there.”
With a young, enthusiastic coach, Dylan Talkovic, the Royals are gung-ho for the 2025- 26 season. For the first time in six years, Hopkins has games against every Lake team – Buffalo, Eden Prairie, Edina, Minnetonka, St. Michael-Albertville and conference newcomer Maple Grove.
It was coach Talkovic who wanted to get back to playing everyone in the league.
“ Dylan is a great coach,” senior captain Baylor Paul said.“ He picks everyone up, even when we’ re at the lowest point.”
Paul is the tallest player in Lake Conference
( SUN PHOTO BY JOHN SHERMAN)
Captains of the 2025-26 Hopkins High boys hockey team are, from left to right: Senior defensemen Baylor Paul and Ben Knight and junior forward Will Hoiska.
hockey this season, standing 6 feet, 7 inches barefoot. He is a good allaround athlete, also a baseball letterman. Every so often, one of the Royal basketball players asks him if he’ d consider changing sports, but Paul is totally loyal to hockey and his teammates.
Paul said his goal is“ to have a better season than last year.”
In their first two games of 2025-26, the Royals went 0-2, but had a chance to win both times. The home opener was a 6-3 loss to a co-op squad from Spring Lake Park / Coon Rapids, then the second game was a 6-5 loss to Minnesota River.
In the Minnesota River game, Hopkins made the score close with four goals in the third period – one from Paul, one from Ben Knight and two from Kirill Udaltsov. Garrett Lochner was the top playmaker with three assists.
Harrison Reiss, Colin Frodermann and Hoiska scored the goals for Hopkins against Spring Lake Park / Coon Rapids.
The two junior goalies for the Royals each played a full game. Dylan Lindstrom made 28 saves against Minnesota River and Oliver Nordeen turned away 40 shots in the loss to Spring Lake Park / Coon Rapids.
Captains are senior defensemen Paul and Knight and junior forward Hoiska. All three had significant roles on the team last season.
“ A lot of people might see us on their schedule and assume it’ s going to be a point night,” Knight said.“ But the team looks pretty good. Some of the new kids on our roster are fast.”
“ It looks like we have a lot of people who can score,” Hoiska observed.“ We have high expectations. The goal is to win every game. I have spent my whole life in Hopkins. We have a great group of guys who came up playing hockey together.”
“ We are energetic on defense,” Knight pointed out.“ When we came out for the first practice, there was a lot of jump. I really liked the pace. We’ re going to catch some
MEET THE
Royals
1 – Junior goalie Dylan Lindstrom 2 – Junior forward Colin Frodermann 4 – Sophomore defenseman Owen Mark 5 – Senior forward Kirill Udaltsov 7 – Senior defenseman Noah Carr 8 – Senior forward Jack Otos 9 – Junior defenseman Garrett Lochner 10 – Junior forward William Moseley 11 – Senior forward Adrian Fischer 12 – Sophomore forward Harrison Reiss 13 – Senior forward Dylan Caspers 14 – Junior forward Martin Larson 15 – Junior forward Jack Mangan 17 – Senior defenseman Baylor Paul 18 – Senior defenseman Ben Knight 20 – Junior defenseman Otto Reinhardt 24 – Junior forward Will Hoiska 27 – Junior forward Harrison Lichty 29 – Freshman forward Jasper Arnseth 31 – Junior goalie Oliver Nordeen
people by surprise.”
“ This group of players has a really strong work ethic,” coach Talkovic said.“ And they have come to embrace the underdog role. Since I began coaching here, we have had a better record every year. We know what we are going to get from Baylor Paul and Ben Knight on defense. Kirill Udaltsov is a proven scorer. Will Hoiska has great speed and great vision. He leads by example and by voice.”
Like most high school teams this time of year, the Royals are working on special teams.
Their power play last season was in very good hands with 2025 graduate Weston Schenkelberg pumping in goals. Power-play scoring might be more of a committee project this season.
Coach Talkovic looks for Hoiska’ s leadership on the power-play and penalty-kill units and the junior captain is eager to log a lot of ice time.
The coach and captains are hoping Royal fans will pack the Pavilion this winter. With the success they envision, the old barn may soon be rocking.