OUA Hockey - Lakers create excitement for the future

For a new program at the end of their first season it's often a case of how many questions were you able to answer, not how many games did you win.

Well, at the end of the Nipissing Lakers inuagural season as an Ontario University Athletics hockey team, they were able to do a little bit of both.

They won 12 games and became only the second team in OUA hockey history to make the playoffs (along with the 2007-08 season Oshawa's UOIT Ridgebacks) in their first season.

But they also answered some very important questions and that is what has Lakers head coach Mike McParland excited about the future.

"Overall it was a very good season for a first year program," explained McParland.

The Lakers caught everyone involved with OUA hockey by surprise with their fast start to the regular season, as after dropping their first two games they rattled off six wins in a row.

"Nobody could say they saw that start coming. We had a good schedule against no real powerhouses but still we played some good games right away which put us in a good position," said McParland.

After the hot start the Lakers proceeded to drop their next eight games before rebounding to play some solid hockey down the stretch.

Heading into the final weeks of the season McParland knew his team had a chance at the sixth seed in the Western Conference, which would have helped them avoid a long bus trip to Quebec in the first round.

"When I studied the schedule heading into the last stretch of games, I actually thought we would end up getting the sixth spot. But Ryerson ended up having a hot finish."

In the end the Lakers finished the regular season with a 12-15-0-1 record that was good enough for 25 points - just two behind the Ryerson Rams.

And in the playoffs Ryerson end up sweeping their series with the Toronto Varsity Blues in two straight games, while the Lakers lost both of their games to the McGill Redmen.

"We learned over the course of the year how important every point is, especially when you finish only a couple points back of a position that could have made your life a lot easier," said McParland.

"Our first game against them (McGill) we played probably our best team game of the season. We played pretty good in the series but in the end their third, fourth, and fifth year guys really stepped up. We're a young team still and that experience will come over time.

Experience aside, the Lakers feel their most pressing need this off-season is improving their size - particularly their forwards.

"No question, we need to improve our size for next season. We're not going to turn anyone away, but if it comes down to a 5'9 guy and a 6'2 guy we'll take the bigger player," explained McParland.

The Lakers were one of the smallest teams in the league this season and McParland thinks that's what hurt them against the better teams, especially in November when they suffered through their longest losing streak of the season.

"We saw when we ran into trouble in November against Carleton and Laurier that while we could skate with those teams, physically they controlled us. Up front this year we only had two guys over six feet (tall); that's a small team."

McParland also feels that improved size - along with experience - will help the Lakers improve their record on home ice next season.

This year, despite playing in front of one of the biggest crowds in the league, they finished just 5-9-0-1 at home including their home playoff game.

"The guys love playing in front of the crowd at home, but for next season we have to start winning those close games and being a more physically intimidating team will help that. It's also the experience factor. We lost a lot of close games at home this season where you saw the other teams experienced players step up in big spots. We can't do anything about that (experience), we need to grow into it," he said.

Recruiting - a key part of any OUA coach’s job - will be a lot easier this year for McParland as he won't have to fill an entire roster.

"It was hard last year to find 25 guys to a fill a roster that was capable of being competitive. This year we can be a little more selective in what type of player we're looking for," he explained.

McParland also wants next year’s roster to be smaller, so there will be fewer players sitting out.

"We're going to have a reduced roster for next year. We still need a few extra players at each position to create competition for jobs, but it's going to be a tighter roster. This year we had a very large roster (31 players) so there were players that weren't playing and were unhappy at times - which is to be expected," he said.

One of the biggest challenges facing McParland is getting the word out that Nipissing is a University hockey school.

"Because they haven't had University hockey here in a long time, a lot of players haven't really heard of Nipissing," explained McParland.

"We also have to compete, especially with the East Coast schools that can give out cash rewards. We don't have that luxury which makes it tough to get the top end Junior A players with how much the East can pay."

McParland said he expects most of his players to return for next season, but one of the biggest challenges in that happening is how they fare in school.

For the first semester, out of the 106 courses the Laker players were enrolled in at Nipissing, only three courses were failed.

But a lot can change when the season is over and routines are broken.

"I'd like to say as an optimist that the entire team would be back, but I know that probably won't happen. At the Christmas break we had great numbers (academically) and I was really proud of the guys. But my worry is now that we're not together as a group everyday their routines get changed and some guys could lose focus. When you have structure in your life it's easier to accomplish things and now they'll have a lot more free time," he explained.

McParland's focus now turns to recruiting until training camp starts, with some players waiting until the last second before deciding.

"You're going to have some of the top guys from Junior A waiting until the very end to decide, but there's not much you can do about that. It's just part of the process," he explained.

Training camp for the Lakers is expected to start at the end of August with their 2010/2011 OUA league schedule to be released soon after.

"I imagine we'll be on the ice (for training camp) in the last week of August as we were this year. We hope to present a 20 (14 regular season and six exhibition) game home schedule around then as well," McParland said.

"We also hope to have two big surprise games around Christmas break with two teams that we're very close to closing up deals with that would definitely create a buzz around the city."

Details on those two games will be made available to the public once the games are confirmed.