AUBURN — St. Dominic Academy girls’ ice hockey coach Paul Gosselin’s message to his team on the opening day of practice was simple and direct.

“We’re starting from square one. We’ve proven nothing this year,” he said. “We’re back to where we were at the beginning of last year.”

Where they were Monday was a virtually empty Norway Savings Bank Arena, which is also where they began their journey to winning the 2015-16 state championship.

Even though the setting and virtually all of the faces are the same (they graduated only one senior, Tia Rotolico), the Saints know they can’t just pick up where they left off last season.

“Every year and every team has its own chemistry,” Gosselin said. “Even though we only changed one (player), that one will make a difference. That, plus the girls are older and more mature and more experienced. It will change the way they play.”

The way they play may change, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some constants in a winning formula.

“I think we have the same goal, but we know that you’re not given anything,” sophomore defenseman Isabelle Frenette said. “You still have to work just as hard.”

“I think with some of the newer players we’re going to have to make some adjustments to how we play,” senior left wing Lexie Kesaris said. “But we’re definitely going to keep up the same intensity, and we’re going to take it game by game and work very hard.” 

The Saints were one of the most prolific scoring teams in the state last year and bring back plenty of scoring with Kristina Cornelio, Avery Lutrzykowski and Frenette. 

And while he hopes his team benefits from having players a year bigger and stronger and more mature, that doesn’t necessarily mean Gosselin can plug in the same line combinations from day one and expect them to be firing on all cylinders when the Saints open the season on Nov. 26 at Greely. Regardless of how well things worked last year, the preseason is a welcome opportunity to experiment.

“We’ll be trying out different things,” Gosselin said. “I know we’ve got the same team back, but we’ll try different factions and see what works and see what doesn’t. We’ll look for things we need to improve on and work on them as we go.”

Players walked onto the ice Monday with a baseline of conditioning coming off a full fall season of activities such as cross country, field hockey and soccer. The Saints followed the same regimen they use during the regular season — one hour of ice time followed by a half-hour of dry-land training. 

“The first week is about trying to get your legs back under you and getting back in peak condition,” Frenette said. 

“We definitely work on conditioning and getting the basic skills down for some of the new players,” Kesaris said. “We try to keep up the intensity and conditioning from the fall sports.”

The intensity of their opponents may be a little different from last year, which the Saints will probably learn on opening night when they face a Greely team that they upset in last year’s North final.

On the other hand, few teams may be better-prepared for taking the ice with a bull’s-eye on their sweaters.

“I feel like playing for St. Dom’s you kind of already have a target on your back,” Kesaris said. “Being state champions from last year, I definitely think it will be a little bit more intense.”

Considering it wasn’t that long ago (2013-14) that they were limited to a junior varsity schedule, the Saints are eager to find out what it takes to stay on top. 

“I’m very excited,” Frenette said. “I’ve been counting down for a solid 20 days now.”