NCAA DIV. III NATIONAL CHAMPIONS RETURN TO VARSITY
More than individual statistics or accolades, the true aim of every hockey player is a championship. A player can go his entire career without getting a crack at the big one, whether it’s an NHL journeyman who has never met Stanley or a GTHL star whose team just didn’t win.
For Oswego State Lakers sophomores Kyle McCutcheon and Brendan McLaughlin, opportunity knocked this past season and they answered. Both were vital members of the 2006-07 NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey championship team.
Friends and teammates since long before their collegiate days in upstate New York, the pair is now back at Varsity for their third consecutive summer where they train and await their championship rings.
“It was the longest season I’ve ever played, but I didn’t feel like I got tired or like my body was wearing down as the season went on,” said McCuthcheon.
The season was one they will not soon forget. Both the national semi-final and national championship games were decided in overtime. The latter was a bit of an upset, as Oswego ended Middlebury College’s 24-game playoff winning streak as well as the Panthers’ quest for a fourth straight national title.
For McLaughlin, it was the only way to finish an impressive second season with the Lakers. He led the team in goals (24), power play goals (13), assists (31), and points (55) on the way to being voted Second Team All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association.
“To be bale to come back to Varsity and train and compete with some really good players from the AHL, the NCAA and the OHL helps me stay sharp,” says McLaughlin. “Iit’s fun to be at the gym every day with them because it’s like you have your own team in the summer.”
The desire to win apparently wasn’t completely satisfied by the national title. McLaughlin and McCutcheon find themselves as captains of different teams in the inaugural Schomogyi Cup, a 3 on 3 summer league comprised of professional, collegiate and junior players who participate in Varsity’s Elite Training Program, and would like to finish the summer with a win, just the way their ‘real’ season did.
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