Athlete Spotlight: Keagan O'Donoghue

Jose Rodriguez '24, Staff Writer | Media & Communications

SALEM, Mass.-  Our athlete spotlight feature Salem State ice hockey player Keagan O'Donoghue (Sr., F, Frisco, Texas), who had four goals and an assist for five points in a 1-1 week for the Vikings. He notched an assist in a 4-3 setback to Fitchburg State and scored four times, including two third period goals in the Vikings' 7-5 comeback victory over Framingham State.     

Despite the fact that the Vikings did not got the results they wanted in their home opener, O'Donoghue was impressed with the atmosphere of the crowd. "Yeah, it was nice to see fans come to the home opener. It always makes the team more energized seeing fans come watch us and hopefully we can get more fans since we are playing well." 

O' Donoghue wasn't surprised when he heard he earned player of the week honors. "I think anyone on our team can easily get it any week and it just means to me that our team is playing well."  

The Frisco native expressed what was different between Fitchburg and Framingham. "Nothing changed too much during both games. Our team always is creating scoring chances, which gives us a chance at scoring many goals any night we play."   

O'Donoghue, who is currently studying, Finance spoke about the team's performance against Framingham State. "Our team just knows we are never out of a game, and we can keep scoring, so we were all locked in knowing we would come back and get those chances to score."  

The senior spoke about why the the team didn't need to make any adjustments from their prior game that led up to a 7-5 win over the Rams. "There weren't many adjustments to be made. Like I said before, our team is very good all the way through and we just need to clean some things up to really create a bigger gap between us and the other teams." 

He mentioned his routine between practice and games. "I usually take a nap and get a coffee before games and then practices are a little different with classes going on." 

His off-season routine he mentioned is always going to the gym and conditioning. 

His parents are O'Donoghue's idols. "My mom and dad because of how hard they work and the sacrifices they make for family and friends."  

The senior spoke about an interesting fact that we don't know about him. "I am from Dallas, Texas and my family is from England and South Africa." 

His favorite NHL team is Dallas and his favorite player is Johnatan Toews. 

O'Donoghue and the Vikings will travel to Dartmouth, Massachusetts on November 18 to face UMass-Dartmouth for a conference matchup. Game time is at 5:00 p.m.