BRECKENRIDGE — After losing 15 seniors to graduation in the past two years, it's pretty obvious the Summit High hockey team will have a different look this season. But the names on the roster aren't the only major change.

The Tigers are smaller, faster and, according to some players, smarter this season, thus prompting head coach Chris Ruhly to change his team's entire style of play from a laid-back defensive approach a year ago to a high-octane, offensive-oriented strategy this year.

“We have the type of players on this team to run this system with the thought process it requires and the type of play it requires,” the coach said. “ ... If it's run the right way and if it's defended the way I think other teams will defend it, it'll be a fun system to watch.”

The new style already has high praises from senior forwards Shamus O'Neill and Jon Gutierrez — the team's top-two returning scorers.

“It's fun, and we don't have to back check as much, which is kind of cool,” O'Neill said with a laugh. “ ... We're looking to get a lot of goals out of it.”

The Tigers will have their first crack at doing that tonight, when they travel to Aspen for the King of the Mountain Tournament.

The season-opening tourney should give Summit a chance to see how it's progressing this early in the year.

“This weekend with be a huge test for us. It's the King of the Mountain and huge bragging rights,” Ruhly said. “This is how we start the season every year, playing the other mountain teams and seeing how we stack up against them is always a good comparison for how we'll do the rest of the year.”

No matter how the weekend goes, however, Ruhly knows the year will be a growing process with a team that lost a lot of experience from last year's squad.

“We have guys that will get thrown into the fire right away and we'll see how they respond,” Ruhly said. “It'll be a lot of teaching at the beginning of the year, and we'll see what we need to work on and what we can build upon.”

Don't confuse Ruhly's words, though, because this season is certainly not a rebuilding year for the Tigers.

Between O'Neill and Gutierrez on Summit's first forward line, the Tigers have a lot of firepower up front. And on defense, the Tigers return juniors Kyle Metzger and Dylan Horan and seniors Sam Dudick and Sonny Magrino, who all played significant minutes a year ago.

As far as filling some other holes, Ruhly feels his team has the players to step up, including a young group of freshmen and sophomores.

With the way things are shaking up thus far, Gutierrez said his team has some lofty goals for itself.

“We'd like to win the King of the Mountain this year and get to (the) Frozen Four and win a state championship,” he said matter-of-factly.

As for Ruhly, he lets his players determine goals. He said his job is to make sure his team is playing its best when the end of the year rolls around. Then once the playoffs start, it's anyone's game.

“There's no reason we couldn't (make the Frozen Four), but you never know in the playoffs,” the coach said. “That's why you play shift by shift, period by period, game by game. We can't get to far ahead and we need to focus on what we're doing while we're on the ice.”

Last year, the Tigers were the

No. 4 seed in the state playoffs, only to be knocked off early by a 13 seed.

This year, they want to make sure they don't get ahead of themselves.

“We've learned from it both ways,” O'Neill said of last year. “If we're a low seed, we know that we can still beat anyone. If we're a high team again, we can't get overconfident. You still have to go out and play.”

That much hasn't changed.

Summit plays Steamboat today at 4 p.m. in the first game of the tournament. The Tigers then have two games on Saturday against Aspen and Battle Mountain.