By Warren Kozireski– Some hockey players dream of moving away from home to pursue their dream while others always hoped of donning the jersey of their hometown team. Count Manhattanville College sophomore Kenny McLean in the latter category.
The New Rochelle High school product recorded five assists in eight games as a freshman—three of those coming in his collegiate debut at Daniel Webster Oct. 29. But this season he has four goals and 11 assists while playing a second or third line center role over 24 regular season games.
“It’s been a pretty good year so far,” McLean said on the final weekend prior to the UCHC playoffs. “Playing with a couple of core guys like Matt Lippa and Eric Berglund helped me get my feet wet this year and I’ve been just running with it.
“Everything starts from down low so I’ve been working on passes coming in and out of the corner and stuff like that which has really helped.”
And he scored his first collegiate goal in the second game of the season.
“Took me a year to get it. Just going to the net basically against Elmira. Then I was able to keep going and build from there.”
“He doesn’t say a whole lot, he just goes about his thing every day, but the one thing he does do is he has a tremendous work ethic,” Manhattanville head coach Arlen Marshall said about his center. “He was brought up the right way by his parents, works hard, has a good motor on him, has good hockey sense and he’s got a really good compete level.
“He’s not a big guy (listed generously at 5’8”, 165 lb.), but he doesn’t play like a small guy though. And he’s starting to find some success finding the back of the net and setting up his line mates. “I’m really happy with how he has progressed.”
McLean played for the Eastern Hockey League’s New York Bobcats in 2015-16 ranking fifth on the team in scoring with nine goals and 19 assists in only 26 games one year after averaging a point per game by recording 43 points in 43 games with New York Apple Core (EHL) in 2014-15.
He netted 85 goals with 69 assists playing for New Rochelle High School and earned All-Section 1 honors and league Player of the Year recognition.
“I did want to stay home (to play)…it’s the best of both worlds to stay at school or go home if I feel like it,” McLean said. “It’s also big because I have all my friends come out and people from my town come out to watch games, so it’s fun. And the food’s better, for sure…mom’s cooking is the best.
“We knew we were a good team coming into this year, we just had to play our game every night and we knew we were going to make the playoffs and be in a good position at the end of the year.”
