Oswego State men’s hockey captain Mitch Herlihey notched his 100th career point en route to the Lakers clinching the SUNYAC regular season title over No. 7/7 SUNY Geneseo Friday night.
Herlihey became the 56th player in Oswego State history to join the 100-point club. The Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, native has tallied 29 points on the season, which is second on the team to Josh Zizek’s 31 points. Even though Herlihey is happy about the accomplishment, he is glad it is over.
“It was cool,” Herlihey said. “I’m glad it’s over with. A lot of people were asking me questions about it. It’s something I didn’t think I’d achieve when I got here. To do it in front of the fans was cool.”
Early in the first period against SUNY Geneseo, Herlihey scored a goal that was assisted on by Michael Gillespie and Josh Zizek for the 99th point of his Laker career.
Herlihey’s goal put the Lakers up 2-0 at that point in the game. However, SUNY Geneseo would come back and trim the Laker lead to 3-2 late in the third.
The Ice Knights pulled Devin McDonald, and Mitch Herlihey capitalized, scoring the 100th point of his career on the empty net. Head coach Ed Gosek said that Herlihey’s consistency on the ice throughout his four years with the Lakers led to him joining the 100-point club.
“He’s remained fairly consistent all four years,” Gosek said. “It’s not like he’s had ups and downs. He is who he is. I think now he’s playing with a lot more confidence and has more experience. To get to 100 points, that’s not easy. He’s earned it.”
Although Herlihey is proud of joining the 100-point club, his main focus right now is winning a championship for the Lakers in his final season.
“It’s kind of in the back of my mind now,” Herlihey said. “I’m just focused on winning a conference title.”
The Lakers will have a good chance of doing just that after their victory over the Geneseo Ice Knights. Oswego State will have home ice advantage throughout the SUNYAC playoffs that start Feb. 21. Herlihey and the Lakers lost in the SUNYAC finals to Plattsburgh State last season and look to right that wrong this time around.
“Last year was a weird year,” Herlihey said. “We just didn’t get our bounces and that just happens. It’s college hockey. Herlihey said. “We learned our lesson when we were losing games around Christmas that you take one period off and your whole season could be done, and these guys have done a good job all year of bringing it every shif,t every period.”
Herlihey has always been a team-first player and hopes to be remembered for his good character above any statistic or record.
“I just want to be remembered as a good teammate,” Herlihey said. “I don’t want to be remembered as a guy that put up a lot of points. I want to be a guy people look back on and say ‘He was a good guy, hard worker and a good captain.’”
That hard work has led Herlihey to 38 career goals and 64 assists with a plus/minus of +62. Gosek says that it is more about the team and winning than individual stats for Herlihey.
“It’s never about the points,” Gosek said. “His focus since day one this year has been to have the team focused and prepared on practicing and playing the right way on the weekends. It wasn’t like it was a goal [on Herlihey joining the 100-point club.] It’s just something that happened along the way of having a successful season.”
Herlihey has the opportunity to lead the Lakers into the SUNYAC playoffs with home-ice advantage throughout the tournament. First, the Lakers will have to close out the regular season with two home games this weekend against SUNY Potsdam on Friday, then Plattsburgh State for senior night on Saturday.
Photo: Cole Parzych | The Oswegonian
