U18 Wolves to compete for the provincial championship in April

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Wolves U18 rep team earned the right to represent Niagara at the Ontario Minor Hockey Association Tier 1 championships with a thrilling 1-1 tie in front of a hostile Fort Erie crowd Thursday, 

The tie gave the Wolves four points on the series, enough to earn the victory, following a similar 1-1 tie in Fort Erie on Monday and a convincing 3-0 win in front of a home crowd at the Meridian Credit Union Arena on Wednesday. 

“All three games in this series, it was a real team effort,” said an ebullient Devon Neudorf, the team’s head coach, while the sounds of celebration emanated from the dressing room after they clinched the OMHA berth. “Up and down the lineup, every guy chipped in and did those little extra things that make the difference in playoff hockey.”

In game one, Noah Whyte put the Wolves on the scoreboard first, assisted by Marco Gruosso and Nick Munera. 

NOTL protected the lead until they got into penalty trouble near the end of the second period. Forced to play 3-on-5 for over six minutes, goaltender Quinten Davis did his best to close the door on the Meteors, but Fort Erie was able to tie it up. 

Davis continued to play solidly in goal as the game closed out with that 1-1 score. 

On Wednesday, a large crowd of supporters filled the stands in Virgil to watch Davis record a shutout against the Meteors. 

This time Fort Erie fell into penalty trouble of their own. The Wolves cruised to a 3-0 victory on the strength of three power-play goals by Dylan Price. 

Thursday’s game was a fast-paced, physical contest with many chances and superb goaltending at both ends of the arena. 

The Wolves took a few questionable penalties in the first period but their shorthanded play was effective in keeping the Meteors away from the net. 

They had two straight power plays of their own early in the second but were kept off the scoreboard by Fort Erie’s penalty kill. With 1:41 left in that frame, the Meteors drew first blood when Davis was screened on a shot from the point that found the back of the net. 

Down 1-0 after two periods, Neudorf’s team needed to score to avoid the series going back to NOTL Friday night. He chose his words carefully in the dressing room between periods. 

“We knew coming into this that we couldn’t win a game if we didn’t score a goal,” Neudorf stated. “We knew we just had to stick to the game plan, get some traffic in front of their net, and good things would happen. We only needed the tie, so we told them if they could come out and just win one period of hockey, we’d be going to Kingston.”

The Meteors took a penalty 2:20 into the third period. The Wolves stormed across the Fort Erie blue line and after an attack on the Meteors’ net, the puck came back to the blue line to Calo Zambito, who blasted it through a crowd blocking the Fort Erie goalie’s line of sight and into the net.  

With just over 12 minutes remaining and the score tied 1-1, Neudorf knew his team had to play smart hockey. And they did, working hard to keep the puck out of their zone and avoiding costly penalties the rest of the way. 

“A lot can happen in that time,” Neudorf explained. “We have been harping on them the last two or three weeks in practice about a couple of things we knew we had to execute against this team. We leveraged the glass a lot more, chipped the puck out, and got it up the ice for tip-ins into their end.”

With that focus on playing between the two blue lines, they were able to defend the lead even when the Meteors pulled their goalie in the last minute of the game. 

Neudorf lauded Davis’ play throughout the three-game series. 

“Quinten had a hell of a series all around,” Neudorf raved. “He had the shutout in game two and only let in one goal in both games one and three. He kept his head up after they scored tonight, too.”

“Fort Erie is a really good team,” Davis told The Local Friday afternoon. “It came down to practice, working on what they do. I knew their top shooters, where they were going to shoot. I worked on my weak spots to get ready for them.”

The Grade 11 Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School student can’t wait to get to the OMHAs. 

“It feels great to be going there,” Davis said. “Winning it has been our goal for the whole season, for the whole team.”

“This is a special group of kids we have here and we’re lucky to have them,” added Neudorf. “They go to battle for each other.”

Up next for the U18 Wolves is the Niagara District Hockey League championship game against the Port Colborne Sailors on Wednesday night. Game time has yet to be decided. 

Then it’s time to prepare for the provincial championship on April 5 through 7 in Kingston. 

“We have just about two weeks,” said Neudorf about that weekend. “We’ll see which teams we draw for that tournament, hopefully it will be a couple of teams we’ve played before in tournaments. We know what we’re up against. We just have to get onto the ice and keep moving forward.”