The Hilliard/Southwest high school club hockey team has made progress over the last two seasons and the Wildcats are hoping to continue that trend this season.

The Wildcats have a new coach at the helm for the fourth time in as many seasons. Nick Wilkinson takes over for Jim Jones after leading the Hilliard/ Southwest junior varsity team last.

Last season the Wildcats saw steady improvement under Jones as they finished 9-9-2 (20 points) in the league to finish third in the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League behind Newark (13-5-2, 28 points) and PRPC (10-4-6, 26 points) and ahead of Westerville (7-11-2, 16 points), Northeast (6-10-4, 16 points) and Athens (7-13-0, 14 points). Hilliard lost 4-3 in overtime to the Storm in the Blue Jackets Cup quarterfinals last season. The Wildcats participated in the Buckeye Cup club state tournament, but did not advance out of pool play.

Newark won the league regular-season title, the league's Blue Jackets Cup and the Buckeye Cup.

Through the first eight games, the Wildcats were 5-1-2. They opened with a 4-2 win over the Westerville Warcats on Oct. 18, defeated the Warcats 5-2 on Oct. 23, had a 2-1 win over PRPC on Oct. 25, a 6-0 win over Northeast on Oct. 30 and a 4-0 win over PRPC on Oct. 31.

"We jumped out to a good start, despite a few injuries," coach Chris Wilkinson said. "We lost a few defensemen early on, but other than that, I think we've been playing pretty well."

The Wildcats had consecutive ties, 2-all against Newark on Nov. 5 and 2-all against the Athens Bobcats on Nov. 6, before losing to the Bobcats 3-1 last Friday.

"I feel like we've done pretty well so far," forward Chris Alverson said. "I think if we can keep learning and keep getting better then we'll have a pretty good shot at winning state this year."

Leading Hilliard/Southwest this season are forwards Chris Alverson, Matt Hannan, Caleb Gabriel and Frankie Riffe, defensemen Matt Hannan, E.J. Graf and Tyler Smith and goalkeeper Doug Martin..

Through the first eight games, Gabriel had three goals and two assists, Hannan had four goals and six assists and Riffe had three goals and five assists. Smith led the Wildcats with 42 penalty minutes.

In goal, Martin allowed nines goals on 72 shots for a 1.80 goals-against average as he had a 3-1-1 record.

Other players for Hilliard/Southwest include forwards John Bailey, Alex Campbell, Casey Fulton, Drew Kennedy, Kyle Majher, Sawyer Schneider and Trevor Voelker and defensemen Matt Buckholz, Troy Campbell, Ryan Johnston, Brandon Kalnasy and Ryan Morrison.

"I don't think we have any weaknesses actually," Alverson said. "We all know each other well and communicate well. We're a real solid team."

The Wildcats face the Storm at the Chiller North on Sunday. The Storm have had a rough start of the season thus far. They are 1-3-3. The game with Northeast is Hilliard's only game until the Wildcats play in the Thanksgiving Classic Tournament on Nov. 27 at the Chiller North.

"I think if we can keep improving then I like our chances (in the league)," Wilkinson said. "We expect to win both (the Blue Jackets Cup and the Buckeye Cup). We set our expectations pretty high this year. We definitely have the talent this year, we just have to put it all together when it counts."