All-Delco Hockey: Irey blazed impressive trail to Player of Year honors
NETHER PROVIDENCE — Prior to the start of the 2018-19 season, Strath Haven coach Matt Chandik challenged his best player. Mike Irey had put together quite a resume in three years of varsity hockey, which included a hat trick in the Central League quarterfinals against top-seeded Haverford as a sophomore and a spot on the All-Delco team as a junior for a 29-goal campaign.
But Irey, by his own admission and in his coach’s eyes, had another level to reach.
“Mike,” Chandik asked, “who in this league is stopping you?”
Irey paused in thought.
“Perfect,” Chandik said. “That’s my point.”
Irey delivered on his potential
as a senior. At 6-1, 180 pounds, he limited the finesse in his game in favor of a more physical, direct style. Irey was bigger than most of his opponents. He was also faster, packed a harder shot and initiated as much contact as he took.
“I just try to do something every shift, whether it’s a big hit, a goal, setting up a play,” Irey said. “You know everyone is watching for you to do something, so you like to show them who you really are.”
His Flyers Cup A quarterfinal performance against Unionville, a 7-4 victory, highlighted the full Irey experience. The second-seeded Panthers fell behind the No. 10 Indians, 2-0, just 6:40 into the game, before Irey took over. He scored Haven’s first and third goals, the latter on an end-to-end rush. Then, after being penalized for what appeared to be a clean body check, he broke out of the box to pot the breakaway winner. Irey was unstoppable on all three goals and punctuated each with an emphatic celebration.
“Everyone will say I’m a quiet kid outside of hockey,” Irey said. “Once I get there, I turn it up to a different level.”
For his 27 goals and 62 points (including at least one in each of his 20 games), for his drive to bring Strath Haven hockey from an afterthought to one of the best programs in the county, and, mostly, for his game-breaking ability, Mike Irey is the 2019 Daily Times Hockey Player of the Year. He is the first Panther to take home the award since Ben Slagis in 2008.
Joining Irey on the first team are Strath Haven teammate Blayden Reid, a defenseman; Cardinal O’Hara center John Paul Ahearn, defenseman Matt Beck and goaltender Troy Percival; Bonner & Prendergast/Upper Darby forward Jakob Moleski; and Garnet Valley defenseman Matt Wood.
Like Irey, Ahearn earns first team honors for the second consecutive year. Percival and Beck, both juniors, are the only non-seniors on the squad. The All-Delco teams are selected by the Daily Times staff in consultation with area coaches.
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Irey bookended his senior season with eye-opening displays. He had two goals and three assists in an 8-7 win over five-time defending state champion West Chester Rustin to start the year. (The Golden Knights would add a sixth title in March). He ended it with a three-point night in a Flyers Cup A semifinal defeat to Hershey. Irey’s spinning, no-look pass to set up Josh Peabody provided one of the few Panthers highlights that evening.
READ: All-Delco Hockey: Ahearn’s two-way play was key for O’Hara
The bigger the stage, the better Irey played. But he and Haven (17-3-1-1) continually fell short of the biggest stage. Lower Merion upset the Panthers in the Central League semifinals. Hershey, the sixth seed, prevented a Rustin-Haven rematch for the Flyers Cup title.
The ending was even more ignominious for Irey, considering he spent the last moments of the Hershey game in the locker room, ejected for fighting, dejected from defeat.
“I should’ve been there for the rest of the team on the ice,” he said, “just to kind of end it all.”
Indeed, Strath Haven began the year with the highest of aspirations. In Irey, Reid, Peabody (second team All-Delco), Ryan Spanier (second team), Liam Carney (second team) and goaltender Lukas Bernaus, the Panthers assembled a core capable of halting the Rustin dynasty and challenging Conestoga for the Central League crown.
“We still think about it sometimes,” Irey said. “There’s nothing you can change, just think back and know you had a great career here.”
That career began with quiet uncertainty as offers from schools with better hockey pedigrees noticed the gifted teen. But Irey knew what kind of teammates he had and committed to making it work at Strath Haven.
“The old Strath Haven, and this isn’t a shot, a kid like (him) probably ends up at prep school,” Chandik, who was hired prior to the 2016-17 season, said. “The fact that Mike looked at it and thought he could blaze his own path is pretty significant. Without him, we’re not where we are today.”
READ: The full list of All-Delco hockey honorees
The Panthers won eight games in Irey’s freshman year and missed the Central League playoffs. They won 33 over his last two.
His dedication to raising the program was evident every time he took the ice, like in the preseason when he’d drive straight from club practice to the high school skate. Or when a separated AC joint in his shoulder, stemming from a dangerous check, failed to slow him as a senior — with a heavy lathering of Icy Hot and a layer of tape, he returned to the Panthers ahead of doctor’s orders.
“I can still feel it now,” Irey said. “I probably should’ve waited longer, but senior year that wasn’t going to happen.”
His legacy goes beyond the postseason disappointments and what-ifs. It’s tied to what he accomplished in four seasons and what players younger than him — “I try to feed off him, so I can be that player when I’m a senior,” sophomore Max Riess said — strive to accomplish.
“I would like to go down as the best player to ever play here,” Irey said. “There could be somebody down the road, but overall, I think I’ve played a complete game, whether it was scoring or setting the tone. I don’t think a lot of kids have that.”
