Last kick at the can for five U18 Wolves

With their best-of-three Niagara District Hockey League playoff series against Fort Erie beginning on Monday, five Niagara-on-the-Lake Wolves U18 rep team members face their last chance to vie for a provincial title. 

Marco Gruosso, Carter Lalonde, Nick Munera, Lucas Roberts Ramos and Logan Smythe are all in their final year of midget eligibility. With no Wolves junior program to graduate to and their post-secondary education set to start this September, all five hope to go out with a bang.

That means winning the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) Tier One title in Kingston April 5 to 7. 

“It’s my last chance to win something major before I go off to university,” said St. Paul Catholic High School student Gruosso on Wednesday before hitting the ice to practice with his teammates. “It was amazing to win that Silver Stick tournament (the Bob Merkley Memorial in November 2023), but our goal has always been to win the OMHAs.”

The Wolves must win their series against the Meteors next week to keep that dream alive. NOTL topped the standings in the regular season but finished second in the round-robin stage of the post-season, with their only losses coming at the hands of the Meteors, 4-2 and 2-1. The winner of this playoff series qualifies for Kingston.

“They were the only team we had a losing record against,” said Gruosso, the team’s captain, who is planning to attend Niagara University in Lewiston, New York in September to study concurrent education. “We know we face a challenge against them, but I’m confident that we can win.”

“Our team is the best one I’ve been on the whole time I’ve been playing hockey,” said Smythe. “I don’t think I’ve seen NOTL do this well in hockey for a long time, especially winning the Silver Stick. And getting to play with my best friends has been great.”

Lalonde, who was in Florida for a March Break vacation during this interview, attends A.N. Myer Secondary School. Munera, Smythe and Roberts Ramos will all graduate from Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School this spring, so they spend a lot of time together all year both on and off the ice. As both the end of the hockey season and graduation loom, they realize they will soon be going their separate ways. 

Roberts Ramos admits that that realization is often on his mind, “but it’s best when you step onto the ice to push that aside and try not to focus on it so much. It’s a stressful time for a lot of people, with deadlines coming up for scholarships and homework. But I just try to focus on hockey when I’m playing.”

Munera, who hopes to attend Queen’s University for business, sees the group of five as core members of the U18 Wolves team. As such, their coaches have relied on them to be leaders for their younger teammates, often stepping out of the dressing room to allow the older players to motivate their teammates. 

“They’ve gotten to the point where they know their roles within the team,” said head coach Devon Neudorf. “Some of them are more vocal on the bench or in the room, and away from the coaches, while others lead by example, they just put their heads down and do what needs to be done without making a scene about it.”

Coach and trainer Kyle Juras adds that it’s been great to watch them build relationships with the younger players. 

“These guys probably wouldn’t know each other if it wasn’t for having to play together,” he said. “They’ve assimilated into one group.”

Neudorf has been impressed all season with the way the five have carried themselves during practices, in games and beyond. 

“All five of those guys really lead by example both on and off the ice,” Neudorf stated. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a group of players that have the same level of respect and work ethic that they do. They’re some of the most hard-working and respectful kids I’ve ever been around.”

Both coaches remark on the growth they’ve seen from the players, some of whom they had a chance to guide previously when they were coaching at a younger age group in the Wolves system. 

“Their growth as people and young men has been incredible, too,” said Neudorf. “This is just one aspect that is going to set them up for a lifetime of success.”

The work ethic and a willingness to take charge that Neudorf and Juras have witnessed leads them to believe that any of the five graduating players would be great to have behind the bench someday. 

“For sure,” agreed Juras. “It takes a good five or six years, like it did with us, before you can come back and coach. I hope that they see us and feel that they can do this too someday. You have to want to do it, and it’s time-consuming.”

Roberts Ramos smiles at that idea, as well as at the thought of playing pick-up or ‘beer league’ hockey in the future. 

Neudorf, Juras and fellow U18 coach Alex Read banded together in December to play on a team in the James Berg Memorial Hockey Tournament, a fundraiser named for the father of the team’s fourth coach Mackenzie Berg, who left the U18 team in January to attend university in Liverpool. 

That set an example for perhaps a future opportunity for the five players to one day regroup. 

“We’d do that for sure,” said Roberts Ramos. “Especially because the tournament is named after Bergie’s Dad.”

And the coaches can also relate to the quintet’s emotions about their NOTL hockey careers coming to an end. In their mid-20s themselves, they’re not so far removed from their own feelings about the same milestone. 

“I’ve had that speech written up for a long time,” trainer Kyle Juras told The Local, laughing. “Those guys will be putting those jerseys on for the last time one day. I remember the bus ride home from Collingwood when we lost the OMHAs. That was my last game about eight years ago.”

 “Everyone wants to go out on a high note,” added Neudorf. “You want to go out as a winner. We didn’t make OMHAs in my final year in midget. I remember getting knocked out in a last-minute heartbreaker against Port Colborne here. It still breaks my heart.”

Game one in the series is scheduled for Monday, March 18 at 7:15 at the Fort Erie Leisureplex. The Wolves host game two on Wednesday, March 20 at the Meridian Credit Union Arena. Game three, if needed, is back in Fort Erie on Thursday evening. 

“I’m hoping that this whole team can push together as a group,” concluded Neuforf, “and at least give us a chance at an OMHA championship.”