Wolves U18 rep team takes silver medal in last tune-up before OMHAs

After finishing the regular season in first place and beating Fort Erie in a three-game series last week, the NOTL Wolves U18 rep team was the favourite heading into Wednesday night’s Niagara District Hockey League final against Port Colborne.

But a sloppy, lacklustre performance resulted in a 5-1 loss and the indignity of being forced to watch the Sailors hoist the Robinson Division Cup in front of a Wolves home crowd at Virgil’s Meridian Credit Union Arena.

It may have been that the Wolves could not overcome the emotional high and the physical toll of knocking off Fort Erie last week to qualify for the Ontario Minor Hockey Association’s Tier 1 championship next weekend in Kingston. 

Sloppy play in the neutral zone and behind their own blue line was the theme for the Wolves for much of the game. NOTL survived a number of turnovers that left goalie Braeden Sawyer to come up with spectacular saves during the first period. But with 42 seconds remaining, a Port Colborne forward was left alone behind the Wolves defenseman. A pass got through to him and the Sailors headed into the second period up 1-0.

The Wolves got on the board 1:20 into the second with a power play goal from Noah Whyte on a shot from the point that he actually fanned on. Later, Sawyer was again forced to come up with two more amazing saves, both on Port Colborne breakaways following Wolves turnovers. His efforts kept the score knotted at 1-1 as the period ended.

The score stayed that way until the mid-way point of the third period, when the turnover bug hit the Wolves once again. And again. Down 3-1 with 3:26 remaining, the Wolves had a crucial power play opportunity, but the Sailors scored a shorthanded goal, then added another on the empty net during the same penalty to skate away with a 5-1 win.

“The effort level wasn’t as high as we’ve seen in the past few weeks,” head coach Devon Neudorf told The Local after the game. “I think the boys are aware of what happened today, aware of the mistakes they made. “

Neudorf and his coaching staff set the goal from the start of the season for the Wolves to make it to and win the OMHAs. He admitted Wednesday that once they locked in their OMHA berth by beating Fort Erie last week, they may have lost some of the focus for the game at hand. 

“There’s still that bigger, over-arching goal,” Neudorf explained. “I think that kind of belittled the meaning and reality of tonight’s game. It’s unfortunate, because we would have loved to have capped off a great season with both a regular season and a league playoff championship.”

Though disappointed with Wednesday’s result, Neudorf still had high praise for his team, and for Sawyer in particular. 

“We can’t fault our goaltending one bit,” he said. “All through these playoffs they’ve been solid. They’ve won us a lot of hockey games all year long. Braeden did his job tonight. We left him high and dry out there a few times and Port Colborne capitalized on it unfortunately.”

With the provincial championship just a week away, he’s hoping the 5-1 loss is something the Wolves can learn from. 

“We told them tonight we either win or we learn,” Neudorf said. “We take this as a learning experience. We understand that there’s a commitment level and an attention to detail that we need in order to execute the simple things and work together as a group.”

The Wolves will open up the OMHA Tier 1 championship on April 5 at 3:00 p.m. against the the Elmvale Coyotes.  On Saturday, April 6 they will take on Mitchell at 11:00 a.m. and Petrolia at 5:10 p.m. The top two teams in their pool will move on to the semi-finals on Sunday. 

With the ice being removed from both arenas in Virgil this weekend, their preparation for those games will take place next week at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls.

One thing is certain for Neudorf - after the loss to Port Colborne they are not about to take any of their OMHA competition lightly. And they know what they have to do to come out victorious. 

“We definitely need to bring it a little more if we’re going to do something special next weekend up in Kingston,” he said. “The boys are committed to working through the process and getting back on track to go and have a great weekend at the OMHAs.”