The Pine City Area Boys Hockey will be joining a new conference when the 2020 season gets underway. It was announced Friday that the Dragons would be making the move to the Mississippi 8. This is a project the Dragons coaching staff and athletic director have been working on for the past three years. Head coach Grant Nicoll told WCMP that the team was very excited to make the move.
The Mississippi 8 consists of Monticello, North Branch, Chisago Lakes, St Francis, Princeton, Cambridge-Isanti, a Co-Op of Becker/Big Lake, and now the Pine City Area Dragon Co-Op. Monticello won the conference with a perfect 11-0 record last year after previous champions Buffalo and STMA left.
Pine City will be leaving the Two Rivers Conference as five-time champions. The Two Rivers Conference was left with just four teams this year after Legacy Christian Academy folded their program and Becker/Big Lake moved to the Mississippi 8.
The move to the Mississippi 8 will no doubt be a more challenging schedule for Pine City, but it will give them more games against Section 5A opponents and will be better for the Dragon Hockey program in the long run.
The Dragon schedule for 2020-2021 will remain as is right now and the conference will be working out a scoring system for the schools that do not play twice in the regular season.
The newly formed Dragon Girls' Hockey team will also be competing in the Mississippi 8 which will consist of Chisago Lakes, a Co-Op of Cambridge-Isanti/St Francis/NorthBranch and a Co-Op of Princeton/Becker/Big Lake.
Photo Credit: Lancelot Furber
