LYNN — There isn’t much that Lynn Jets forward Brian Clougherty hasn’t accomplished during his junior season this winter.
All Clougherty did during the regular season was score 28 goals, while dishing out 34 assists for 62 points — ranking first in the team in all three categories. In the process, Clougherty was named a Northeastern Conference all-star and led the Jets to an 11-5-4 record this season, good for the No. 5 seed in the Division 3 North state tournament.
“Brian’s a total player,” first-year Jets head coach Mike Roberts said. “He’s a quiet kid but he brings the ability to stretch the ice. When I joined as an assistant coach two years ago, Brian was a freshman. I saw a lot of raw ability. Over the last two years, I’ve worked with him on cutting to the middle of the ice. With his size and reach he can keep defenders off and he shoots the puck exceptionally well.”
Clougherty has anchored a Jets first line that has done the bulk of Lynn’s scoring this season, along with junior left wing John DiFilippo and senior center, Mike, his older brother. DiFilippo has scored 25 goals while distributing 17 assists, while Mike has scored 15 goals with 30 assists.
“I knew coming into the year that line was going to be the glue to our offense and the key to our success,” Roberts said. “As a unit, they work so well together. They cycle the puck so well. Michael’s the senior, he does a lot of the set-up and he’s the playmaker. Johnny’s the speedster, he’s fast and he’s able to get underneath players. Brian has a lot of size and he’s able to do things I haven’t seen payers do in some time.”
Coming into the season, Clougherty didn’t expect to lead the team in points en route to a tournament berth. However, now that he and the Jets are here, Clougherty credited his fellow linemates for putting him in position to succeed.
“This season hasn’t been anything I expected,” Clougherty, who attends Classical, said. “It’s more about my linemates and my teammates. The coaches have been a huge help. I’m just trying to find anything I can do to help the team.
“All three of us grew up together and we’ve been linemates since we’ve all been 10 years old,” Clougherty added. “We played in a couple tournaments together over the summer. After that we developed a great sense of chemistry and we just took off this season.”
With a strong core of linemates and teammates surrounding Clougherty, keeping the Jets off the scoreboard has been an almost impossible task. When opponents zone in on Clougherty, the door opens for his teammates to make noise on the stat sheets.
“When you’re warming up against us and see Brian at 6-5, 205 pounds, you key in on him,” Roberts said. “If you focus too much on him, that opens chances for his teammates. Johnny and Mike make the most of those opportunities. Sean Devin’s having a great season leading the second line too. Our first line wears teams down and then Sean capitalizes on those chances with the second line. By the third period, we’ve taken control.”
Making his success on the ice even more significant is that he gets to work alongside his older brother, Mike. Clougherty credited his older sibling for being a role model and teaching him the importance of a strong work ethic.
“It’s great, the chemistry’s there because we’re brothers,” Clougherty said. “We share that instinct. He’s a tremendous player. Sometimes I wish I had his work ethic. I wouldn’t be where I am without him. He really leads the way.
“From Mike I learned that if you’re in the right place in the right time and your really work at it, it’ll all pay off one day,” Clougherty added. “He taught me the value of hard work and it’s starting to pay off.”
Clougherty and the Jets made it a point to finish the regular season on a high note. They accomplished that by going 6-1-3 over their last 10 games, with their only loss coming to Longmeadow in the Newburyport Tournament last week. Lynn bounced back with a 5-2 victory over Hamilton-Wenham, another tournament-bound team, two days later in their regular season finale.
“We have a great team,” Clougherty said. “When it comes down to it, we’re focused but we also have fun too. If we start games on the right foot and take less penalties, we’re a very good team. We never give up, that’s the number one thing.”
Now that the Jets are in the postseason, a familiar foe awaits them for Thursday night’s (6) first round clash at Stoneham. The Jets will host Latin Academy, the team that cut Lynn’s postseason short last winter in the Division 3 North quarterfinals.
“We’re expecting to have a deep playoff run,” Clougherty said. “We want to do it for Coach Roberts. It would mean a lot to all of us. We weren’t expected to do that great this year but it would mean a whole lot if we can win a couple games in states and keep this thing going.”
