With SUNY Canton on the Oswego State Lakers’ schedule this weekend, there are plenty of hometown connections to discuss. The Sports Information Director, Nate Hart, and head coach Trevor Gilligan of the men’s ice hockey team from Canton are Oswego State graduates.

The young program in Canton is on the rise. Both Laker grads are using their hockey-first mentality that they acquired from Oswego to help the hockey teams flourish.  SUNY Canton is now an independent team, meaning they don’t belong to a conference, but are trying to break into the SUNYAC.

Learning from one of the most historic coaches in all of Div. III hockey, Gilligan has kept in contact with Oswego State head coach Ed Gosek and has taken a variety of lessons from him on how to run a successful hockey program in this league.

“I learned a lot about how important both work ethic is on the ice, and especially off the ice,” Gilligan said. “He held us accountable in our off ice conditioning and just basically being good people on and off the ice.”

On top of him learning from Gosek, Gilligan was a part of the 2007 National Championship team here at Oswego. Now that he is behind the bench of his own team, he has the knowledge to bring his team to the next step from his time as a hockey player at such a high level.

“It has to be a full year commitment to the game of hockey so when you get in that position at the end of the year you know that you put enough time and effort in to be successful,” Gilligan said. “I’ve tried to preach that to every team I’ve coached in the past.”

SUNY Canton is relatively new to Div. III hockey and Oswego natives Trenton Yule and Josh Sova feel the program is trending in the right direction. Under Gilligan, the team has been expanding and improving with ascending win totals in his first two years, and the possibility of further improvement come season’s end.

“I think we are moving in the right direction,” Yule said. “We gotta find a way to get over the hump with those one goal games, but the guys are all working toward the same goal.”

“I’m actually really excited about the way the program is going,” Sova said. “Our team is pretty young; most of [the guys on] our team are sophomores and freshmen. I think we are still trying to get a grip on how to play SUNYAC hockey and having to bring our A game every night.”

With the home and home this weekend and both teams hosting their senior night, this one is shaping up to be a great match-up to add to this history between these two programs. Oswego State holds a 5-1-0 series edge in the series between these two teams.

“I think we are on the up,” Hart said. “I think it is going to be a good match-up this weekend, too. We play a lot of close games so I expect it to be a very good game.”

The Oswego State Lakers will take on the SUNY Canton Kangaroos on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.