Two years ago the Wareham/Carver Boys Ice Hockey team went 0-18. Last year the team went 13-14 and missed the playoffs by a single point. Coming so close to the postseason and improving so rapidly have fueled the team's fire coming into this year.

"The goal this year is to not only qualify but to compete for a higher seed in the playoffs," said Head Coach Bryan Erikson.

The team has a similar makeup to last year as far as the split between Wareham and Carver players go. Last year it was 15 Wareham players and five for Carver, while this year there are 12 from Wareham and seven from Carver.

Two of the team's most important players -- starting goalie Marquies Almeida and captain and leading goal scorer Craig Lauzon -- graduated last year.

"You're never gonna replace a kid like Craig," Erikson said.

But he said two of his captains, Pat Hurley, Stephen Toal, have stepped up as team leaders at the beginning of this season.

"They've taking leadership of the locker room and getting the guys ready to play."

Relacing Almeida in net is sophomore Derek Miller, who played all of four games for the team last year.

"He played for me in the fall and he's improved dramatically," Erikson said, adding that he is confident Miller is ready to play at a high level.

In Lauzon's absence, Erikson said he will be looking at number of players to pick up the slack on goal scoring duties. One of the players he mentioned was sophomore Mike Houdlette. In the team's most recent game against Upper Cape Cod Tech, Houdlette scored with 36 seconds remaining to give Wareham/Carver a 4-3 win.

That win brought to the team to 1-1 overall record to start off the season.

Erikson said the team has dealt with a number of injuries to start the season and was without five of its six top players in the season-opening 5-1 loss to Norton.

When all his players are healthy, Erikson said they will be back to playing their hyper-aggressive brand of hockey.

The team's next game is against Durfee on Dec. 23.