The Oswego State men’s ice hockey team was not selected for an at-large bid in the 2018 NCAA tournament following three consecutive losses to end their season.

Following a 3-1 loss to No. 5 SUNY Fredonia in the SUNYAC semifinals, Oswego State’s season was left in the hands of NCAA selection committee. With the selection show revealing the University of New England, Adrian College, Salve Regina University and Marian College received the Pool C bids, the Lakers were left on the outside looking in.

“I just wish we had taken care of our own business when we had the opportunity to,” Oswego State men’s hockey assistant coach Mark Digby said. “It’s hard when it comes selection time and your fate is left in someone else’s hands.”

Since the SUNYAC regular season champions did not receive the chance to extend their season, the returning players and staff will now have to focus on the impending offseason and beyond.

“[There’s] no regrets. They had a lot of distractions this year, difficult, trying year with everything that went on,” Oswego State men’s hockey head coach Ed Gosek said. “I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

The Lakers will take the next few weeks  before they come back in the first week of April to have their individual evaluations. Following the evaluations, players will be given workout and weight programs to stay in shape for next season.

In the offseason, the coaches are focusing on how to improve the team and themselves for next season.

“Next year, the questions will be ‘can the Zizeks, the Berrys, the Molinaros, the Gillespies…repeat what they did?” Digby said. “Can they improve on what they did or is there going to be a drop off?”

With only three players graduating, the incoming recruiting class will be significantly smaller compared to the past recruiting classes. There will only be about six freshmen and three transfers, according to Digby.

“Right now, we’ve been on the road pretty heavy here,” Gosek said. “Just finalizing, getting out there, seeing the recruits that we have coming.”

The coaches are hoping to fill the voids the team has with some of the new recruiting class. For Digby, it was more about speed and being able to get players who can get the puck into the net.

“Hopefully, they’ll be fast,” Digby said. “That’s something I think the last two groups, when you look at what we’ve tried to do with recruiting and the way the games going, is try to get faster.”

With three players graduating, Mitchell Herlihey, David Ferreira and Trent Durocher, the coaches will need to find players who will be able to fill those spots.

“We need to obviously replace the three players that are graduating,” Gosek said. “We have some other voids that we feel we need to improve on.”

With the majority of the team staying, they will have to prove themselves capable of either keeping or increasing their ice time.

“We’re happy with the guys that are here,” Gosek said. “It’ll be their job to not allow a new guy to come in and take ice time away from them, and it’s the new guys job to come in and try to take ice time away from them.It’s a healthy competitive environment that we want to keep intact.”

Expectations were exceeded in the 2017-18 season, considering 12 seniors graduated and other players had left under different circumstances. The team added many new players, which left them unsure of where the season could go.

“Every year is interesting, the start of the year, for different reasons,” Digby said. “This year, we had just no clue really what to expect.”

For the 2018-19 season, expectations will be high with how well Oswego State did this past season and with so many returning players.

“My guess would be next year that the expectations would be higher on us based upon the amount of players that we return as opposed to this year,” Gosek said.

With the recruits Oswego State is getting, they will be expected to adapt well to the team, as the coaches would not recruit anyone they do not think would be able to, according to Digby.

With the season ultimately ending, Gosek commends his players for working extremely hard this season. Despite the downfall at the end, there were many positives this year, Gosek said.

To prepare for next season, the Lakers will look to improve themselves even more from this past season.

“Nobody stays the same, you either get better or you get worse and for our guys it’s their job to get better,” Gosek said. “You got to get outside that comfort zone to make yourself better.”

Photo: Greg Tavani | The Oswegonian