Be ON THE ICE at the start of our session. The expectation is we are fully dressed and ready to skate, waiting at the gate to get on the ice BEFORE our clock time starts... Be punctual!!! 

GET AHEAD, STAY AHEAD, and DON'T TIRE...JP Parise

Skate hard to the puck. With the puck. Off the bench. To the bench. To face off. All. The. Time.

Never stop trying... we are looking for players to 'step up'. No matter what your skill level is.. there is ALWAYS room to step it up. Go the extra mile. Put it in high gear. STEP. UP. YOUR. GAME.

“The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.”  – Wayne Gretzky

With this quote in mind, the coaches recognize our stars of the game.

We ended the season with a great effort. Great job from:

Nathan M, Nate A,, Evan, Andy, and Marcus

We are very proud to announce that Marcus and Matt will represent our team at the 8th Annual Titan Athletic Hockey All Star Hockey Classic in Andover.  They will represent EPHA - Squirt C hockey with their love of the game, skill, dedication, work ethic, and effort. The games will be played  Sat. or Sun. March 14th & 15th at The Andover Community Center.  Please join me in congratulating them and at the games!

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DIBS are your REQUIRED hours of volunteering for the Eden Prairie Hockey Association - EPHA. 

This is NOT the volunteer assistance required for your team.  Please see available times to fill your DIBS requirement at the right. You can also view the EPHA website. A GREAT time to do a bunch of hours is at any Tournament that Eden Prairie HOSTS. They need a lot of help to run the Tournaments. 

This is NOT your DIBS required volunteer hours for the EPHA. 

This is assistance needed to run the team.. we ALL will help.  

We will need people to run the clock at our home games, man the penalty box, and keep the scoresheet. We will need people to help the manager to collect raffle tickets and funds, to organize the basket donation and to organize Team Building activities, etc.

To learn how to use the clock and fill in the scorekeeper sheet, see document "Parent Volunteer Procedures". 

13 Simple Rules for Hockey Parents

1. Under no circumstances will hockey practice ever be cancelled. Ever. Even on days when school is cancelled, practice is still on. A game may be cancelled due to inclement weather because of travel concerns for the visiting team, but it would have to rain razor blades and bocce balls to cancel hockey practice at your local rink. It's good karma to respect the game.

2. Hockey is an emotional game and your child has the attention span of a chipmunk on NyQuil. The hockey coach will yell a bit during practice; he might even yell at your precious little Sparky. As long as there is teaching involved and not humiliation, it will be good for your child to be taught the right way, with emphasis.

3. Hockey is a very, very, very, very difficult game to play. You are probably terrible at it. It takes high skill and lots of courage, so lay off your kid. Don't berate them. Be patient and encourage them to play. Some kids need more time to learn how to ride the bike, but, in the end, everyone rides a bike about the same way.

Your kids are probably anywhere from age 4-8 when they first take up hockey. They will not get a call from Boston University coach Jack Parker or receive Christmas cards from the Colorado Avalanche's director of scouting. Don't berate them. Demand punctuality and unselfishness for practice and games. That's it. Passion is in someone, or it isn't. One can't implant passion in their child. My primary motive in letting my kids play hockey is exercise, physical fitness and the development of lower-body and core strength that will one day land them on a VH1 reality show that will pay off their student loans or my second mortgage.

4. Actually, I do demand two things from my 10-year-old Squirt, Jackson. Prior to every practice or game, as he turns down AC/DC's "Big Jack," gets out of the car and makes his way to the trunk to haul his hockey bag inside a cold, Connecticut rink, I say, "Jack, be the hardest, most creative and grittiest worker ... and be the one having the most fun." That might be four things, but you know what I mean.

5. Your kids should be dressing themselves and tying their own skates by their second year of Squirt. Jack is 67 pounds with 0 percent body fat and arms of linguini, and he can put on, take off and tie his own skates. If he can, anyone can. I don't go in the locker room anymore. Thank goodness; it stinks in there.

6. Do not fret over penalties not called during games and don't waste long-term heart power screaming at the referees. My observational research reveals the power-play percentage for every Mite hockey game ever played is .0000089 percent; for Squirts, .071 percent. I prefer referees to call zero penalties.

7. Yell like crazy during the game. Say whatever you want. Scream every kind of inane instruction you want to your kids. They can't hear you. In the car ride home, ask them if they had fun and gently promote creativity and competiveness, but only after you take them to Denny's for a Junior Grand Slam breakfast or 7-Eleven for a Slurpee. Having a warm breakfast after an early morning weekend game will become one of your most syrupy sweet memories.

8. Whenever possible, trade in your kids' ice skates and buy used skates, especially during those growing years and even if you can afford to buy new skates every six months. Your kids don't need $180 skates and a $100 stick no matter what your tax bracket is. They will not make them better players.

9. Missing practice (like we stated above) or games is akin to an Irish Catholic missing Mass in 1942. We take attendance at hockey games very seriously. Last week, the Islanders' Brendan Witt was hit by an SUV in Philadelphia. Witt got up off the pavement and walked to Starbucks for a coffee, and then later played against the Flyers that night. Let me repeat that: BRENDAN WITT WAS HIT BY AN SUV ... AND PLAYED THAT NIGHT! Re-read that sentence 56 times a night to your child when they have a case of the sniffles and want to stay home to watch an "iCarly" marathon. By, the way Philadelphia police cited Witt for two minutes in jail for obstruction. Witt will appeal.

10. Teach your kids not to celebrate too much after a goal if your team is winning or losing by a lot. And by all means, tell them celebrate with the team. After they score, tell them not to skate away from their teammates like soccer players. Find the person who passed you the puck and tell him or her, "Great pass." We have immediate group hugs in hockey following a short, instinctive reaction from the goal scorer. I am proud of my boy for a lot of things, but I am most proud at how excited he gets when a teammate scores a goal. He is Alex Ovechkin in this regard.

11. There is no such thing as running up the score in hockey. This is understood at every level. It's very difficult to score goals and unexplainably exhilarating when one does. Now, if we get to 14-1, we may want to take our foot off the gas a tad.

12. Unless their femur is broken in 16 places, Mites or Squirts should not lie on the ice after a fall on the ice or against the boards. Attempt to get up as quickly as one can and slowly skate to the bench.

13. Do not offer cash for goals. This has no upside. Passion and love and drive cannot be taught or bought. I do believe a certain measure of toughness and grit can be slowly encouraged and eventually taught. Encourage your kid to block shots and to battle hard in the corners. It will serve them well in life.

Enjoy the rink. Keep it fun, keep it in perspective and enjoy the madness. In this digital world of electronics, you may find hockey to be the most human endeavor you partake in. Cell phones run on batteries. Hockey players run on blood. Blood is warmer. Welcome.

USA Hockey Skills and Drills for the Complete Player and Coach with more than 400 on-ice skills, is the most definitive training resource ever assembled.

Watch all below... great information to review after practice!!!