McKelvie settling in at Lake Forest

by Nate Woelfel

Lake Forest head men’s hockey coach Ryan McKelvie has had a wide variety of hockey experiences.

Though he has spent a good deal of time in both the Division I and North American Hockey League, the first year head man is getting his initial taste of the Division III level.

The Foresters have admittedly struggled a bit this season and stand at 1-16 overall and 1-11 in MCHA conference play, but despite a tough start to his inaugural campaign, McKelvie has been impressed with what Division III has to offer.

Junior captain Ben Finney and the Foresters are slowly making strides under first-year head coach Ryan McKelvie.

“Without there being very many Division II teams, I think the level of hockey is very good,” McKelvie said.  “I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how good the hockey is. It’s fun working with kids that work as hard as they do and have ability. The level of intensity and the level of play has been awesome.”

McKelvie has found that the mindset of his athletes has helped make the transition easier.

“One thing that I have noticed, is that everyone wants to be here,” McKelvie said.  “We’re not dealing with a lot of attitudes or anything like that. Our guys work extremely hard.”

“Everything, right now, is new to our team. We have a lot of new players, but even for the returning players, they had a different coach last year.  There are some players that are really adapting to it easily and having success with that. But then, there are some players that it is just taking longer to adjust.”

With the adjustment period has come adversity.

“The biggest difficulty I think we’ve had is just getting everybody on the same page, everybody buying in that if we are all on the same page and we are all working toward the same goal that we are going to be very successful,” McKelvie said. “But we can’t have certain people trying to do things their own way.  Everybody has to be doing things our way.”

The improvements made by the Foresters this season may not be appearing in tangible categories such as wins and losses, but McKelvie is looking for more than that.

“The first thing that we have tried to instill here is just that we have good people that are good in the classroom but are also positive contributors to the school and to the community,” McKelvie said. “When they come to the rink they come there ready to work and ready to do whatever it takes to help the team win.”

As far as McKelvie is concerned, the new mentality is starting to get the program rolling in the right direction.

“That is the culture we are trying to create here and I think our guys have done a great job with that,” said McKelvie. “I think everybody, for the most part, has bought in by now and now we are starting to see our on-ice play improve.”

Lake Forest's on-ice play appears to be on the upswing despite the fact it has yet to translate into the win column.  Since the beginning of December, the Foresters have tallied at least three goals in a game six times after managing the feat just once in their first nine games of the season.  In that same span, the Foresters have suffered five one-goal losses.

Despite the fact wins haven't come as fast as some may have hoped, McKelvie's goal for his team is unwaivering regardless of the pace at which the Foresters have progressed.

“We’ve had one goal all year long and that is to be in a place where we can compete for a conference championship come playoff time,” McKelvie said. “It hasn’t been necessarily to start great out of the gate it’s been to improve every week throughout the year so we are playing our best hockey come playoff time.”

However, there is no hiding what the Foresters are up against in the second half the season, especially since only the top six teams in the regular season standings qualify for the MCHA Harris Cup Playoffs.

“Obviously where we are at in the standings right now, our number one concern is just getting into the playoffs and then, obviously, playing our best hockey once the playoffs start.”

This offseason will provide McKelvie and his staff with the opportunity to land their first recruiting class, a measure that he hopes will help the program continue to make larger strides.

 “I really believe that, at Lake Forest, we have an incredible school here that is in a great location that has top-end academics,” McKelvie said. “We have a rink on campus that we just did a ton of renovations to and it looks great, we have newly renovated locker rooms, new bleachers in the arena."

"I think our program is in a place right now where we should be able to attract top recruits from throughout North America.  I think we can really be a nationally competitive team in the near future.”

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