{"id":151528,"date":"2025-02-27T11:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=151528"},"modified":"2025-02-25T17:13:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T23:13:28","slug":"resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Salem State captain Luke Day has been a key role model to the young Vikings who are preparing for their first home playoff game in eight seasons (Photo by Liliana Nunez\/Emily Jancauskas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference tournament game for the first time since 2017 \u2013 ironically the last year they won the MASCAC title. The Vikings have found a winning formula that has led to an 18-6-0 record and a seven-game win streak that dates back to February 1 \u2013 a streak the team would like to extend into March and starting with a win this evening at \u201cThe Rockett.\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been really nice to see the re-birth of the program after missing out on the playoffs last season,\u201d stated second-year head coach Chris MacInnis. \u201cWe have been getting contributions from everyone in the lineup and have had everyone buy into the system we need and want to play to be successful. We are still a fairly young team, so our leadership has been very important to make sure everyone is invested and doing what it takes for the team to get results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain Luke Day started wearing the \u201cC\u201d midway through last year\u2019s season and his ability to carry the weight of the team and mentor the younger players has been on display this season with both on-ice and off-ice activities. In the last game of the regular season it was Day\u2019s late third period goal that spurred a 6-4 comeback win over Worcester State with three goals coming in the final three minutes of regulation time.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuke has certainly carried the team at times,\u201d noted MacInnis. \u201c He is especially good at doing things the \u201cright way\u201d and showing the younger players the foundations of being a successful college hockey player. Another leader has been Keagan O\u2019Donoghue who returned as a graduate student this year and had some question marks on buying into the system and approach from the coaching perspective. He has checked all those boxes, been a great leader for us, is a big part of our first line with Landyn {Greatorex] and James [Tatro] and recently picked up his 100th<\/sup> career point. I was so happy for him to achieve that important milestone especially since I was the last player to that here at Salem State. I hope we will see many more 100-point players come through the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

One player on that trajectory is first-year James Tatro. So far this season Tatro is playing on the top line and already has thirty points on the season (14G \u2013 16A \u2013 30 Pts; +18) He has been dynamic on special teams scoring five power play goals and two shorthanded markers while scoring four game-winning goals for the Vikings so far this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew when he visited that james was a good fit here at Salem State,\u201d said MacInnis. \u201cHe was going to go play club hockey at Niagara but after thinking about things over the summer decided to come here and the fit has been obvious from the start of the season. He is a local kid who played high school hockey at Triton, so his family is nearby and very supportive of his playing here. I think James might fall into the \u201clate bloomer\u201d category, but he has certainly come into his own in this his first year at the collegiate level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macinnis himself is a graduate of Salem State having recorded 102 points (44G \u2013 58A \u2013 102 Pts) between 2006-2009. MacInnis played for the legendary Bill O\u2019Neill and then was an assistant coach with O\u2019Neill before taking the job last season upon his mentor\u2019s retirement. He learned a lot from his college coach and others that has helped with the quick trajectory the team has seen in just his second season behind the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely take a lot from coach O\u2019Neill and others including John Maguire, head coach at Waltham High School where I was an assistant when they won the Massachusetts state championship in 2018,\u201d stated MacInnis. \u201cI think the biggest takeaways have been really getting to know the players on a personal level, creating some work life balance and just a love of being at the rink every day. They say find something you love ,and you will never work a day in your life and that is what I have here at Salem State. There have definitely been a few \u201cpinch me\u201d moments that I am doing this, but this is what I love to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vikings would love to play in a semifinal MASCAC playoff game and play for a 32nd<\/sup> conference title the following week. The young team has learned a lot over the course of the season and now hopes the applied lessons will carry them back to the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything is possible in the playoffs,\u201d noted MacInnis. \u201cWe have built a lot of confidence from winning games over teams like Endicott and coming back over Worcester State in the season finale as well as winning the Boston Landing tournament. We have also learned from adversity with some key losses. It is a three-game tournament and right now we are focused on the opponent for tonight as the Corsairs can be very dangerous with players like Tyler Stewart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference tournament game for the first time since 2017 \u2013 ironically the last year they won the MASCAC title. The Vikings have found a winning formula that has led to an 18-6-0 record and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":151530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[820],"coauthors":[822],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nResurgent Vikings focused on playoff success - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"Tim Costello\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-27T17:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-25T23:13:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1078\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1035\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Costello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@d3pucks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Costello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/\",\"name\":\"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-27T17:00:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-25T23:13:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1de4c45122ef23fe626ce6aa69ac2123\"},\"description\":\"With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg\",\"width\":1078,\"height\":1035,\"caption\":\"Salem State captain Luke Day has provided leadership to the young Vikings who are preparing for their first home playoff game in eight seasons (Photo by Liliana Nunez\/Emily Jancauskas)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/\",\"name\":\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"description\":\"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1de4c45122ef23fe626ce6aa69ac2123\",\"name\":\"Tim Costello\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/7233ce172a4aafc254798353f7be40ca\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e264b952c785b8e2ec0a4a32d1c6ec35?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e264b952c785b8e2ec0a4a32d1c6ec35?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Costello\"},\"description\":\"Division III Columnist Tim Costello joined USCHO as a correspondent in 2003. A former collegiate goaltender, he covers D-II and D-III conferences in New England and provides features spanning D-I and other special interest stories.\",\"sameAs\":[\"Tim Costello\",\"costello9301\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/@d3pucks\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/costello\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_author":"Tim Costello","article_published_time":"2025-02-27T17:00:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-25T23:13:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1078,"height":1035,"url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tim Costello","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@d3pucks","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Costello","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/","name":"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-27T17:00:32+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-25T23:13:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1de4c45122ef23fe626ce6aa69ac2123"},"description":"With tonight\u2019s quarterfinal home playoff game against Massachusetts-Dartmouth just hours away, the Salem State Vikings will be hosting a home conference","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Day.jpg","width":1078,"height":1035,"caption":"Salem State captain Luke Day has provided leadership to the young Vikings who are preparing for their first home playoff game in eight seasons (Photo by Liliana Nunez\/Emily Jancauskas)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/resurgent-vikings-focused-on-playoff-success\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Resurgent Vikings focused on playoff success"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/","name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1de4c45122ef23fe626ce6aa69ac2123","name":"Tim Costello","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/7233ce172a4aafc254798353f7be40ca","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e264b952c785b8e2ec0a4a32d1c6ec35?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e264b952c785b8e2ec0a4a32d1c6ec35?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Costello"},"description":"Division III Columnist Tim Costello joined USCHO as a correspondent in 2003. A former collegiate goaltender, he covers D-II and D-III conferences in New England and provides features spanning D-I and other special interest stories.","sameAs":["Tim Costello","costello9301","https:\/\/x.com\/@d3pucks"],"url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/author\/costello\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151533,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528\/revisions\/151533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151528"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=151528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}