Together We Rise - Hounds Ready For The Final

To measure the exploits of the 2017-18 Notre Dame Hounds ‘AAA’ midget hockey team, and their 39 win-to-only-two-regulation-loss regular season, against other displays of dominance, both by other Notre Dame programs, or by any hockey club anywhere, would be too difficult to do proper justice.

 

Regardless, this team has been remarkable, consistent, and dominant.

 

Head coach Devon Praught’s men smashed their way through Saskatchewan this season, scoring 128 more regular-season goals than they had conceded. At the same time, forwards Luke Mylymok and Nolan Renwick, defenceman Quinn Schmiemann, and goaltender Riley Kohonick, who also was named goaltender of the year, were named provincial all stars.

 

But despite all the goals, and all the personal accolades, the veteran Renwick is convinced that the team has successfully checked selfishness at the door.

 

“We don’t have anybody with huge egos or anybody putting themselves before the team,” says Renwick, himself a commit to the University of Maine in NCAA Division I hockey.

 

“As a team we really feel that when anyone scores, it is the team scoring, and not the individual, and we have really bought into that mentality here. We have a motto: “together we rise”, based on the belief that no individual team can do it alone. We need all 20 guys, all the coaches, all the training staff to meet our goals, so that has been our motto throughout the playoffs.”

 

Last year’s loss Round 1 loss to Yorkton was devastating, but while an overwhelming taste for redemption would have been an easy sell for Praught, and the seven returnees on this year’s club, the 30-year-old Prince Edward Islander has elected for a different perspective, as his men charge headlong into the Saskatchewan midget playoffs.

 

“Sure, I think the loss motivated the guys, and hats off to Yorkton,” he says, “but regardless of whether we had won or not, Notre Dame’s culture is about humbly working to get better every day.

 

“I find that if you’re motivated to be the best version of yourself every day, that’s when special things can happen. That’s where I go back to the leadership of this group: there are seven guys that were on that team last year that had success in the regular season, and each one has come back hungry, but I’d like to think that even if we had gone on and won it all, they’d still be hungry, because that’s the kind of character they have.”

 

Given what this year’s team has already accomplished to this point, their playoff expectations are clearly extremely high.

 

At time of this writing, the Hounds had cruised past the first round of the post-season, sweeping away the No. 8 ranked Saskatoon Blazers by a combined score of 16-3 in the three contests. They followed that up with knocking off Swift Current, and will start the league final tonight against Prince Albert.

 

Either way, the face a grueling road ahead if they want to reach their ultimate goal: a shot at the midget national championship, the Telus Cup, set for the last week of April in Sudbury, Ont.

 

Another tough round stands in their way of a Saskatchewan midget title, and after that, a potential trip to a Western Regional qualifier in early April, against a host team from Thunder Bay, the Northern Ontario champion Kenora Thistles, and the champions of Manitoba, which will yield a lone spot in the Telus.

 

“We always knew we had a talented group,” says Praught.

“We tried to set the tone starting with the first meeting, we had the expectations that no moment would be insignificant for this group, whether it was on the ice, or in the weight room, or any team event.

 

“We expected the guys to be engaged no matter what it was we were doing,” he adds, “and as the success came, we were just able to focus one game at a time, one shift at a time. For us the score is always 0-0, we just want our guys to stay present in the focus on getting better every shift, every night. We know we are building towards something, so hopefully at the end of the day we are able to win our last game of the season – that’s the ultimate goal for us.”

 

It is unsurprising then, and especially given last year’s disappointment, that the Hounds are being extremely cautious in getting too far ahead of themselves.

 

“I think the biggest thing is to stay humble,” says team captain Cody Lehner.

 

“It is a long season, so we can only focus on one game, one shift at a time. We set big goals for ourselves, so we just have to have fun, work hard, respect our opponents and the game, and let the results come from that. We don’t worry about what anybody says about us, or what anyone else’s expectations are; we know we are good, we have a purpose, and that’s all that matters to us.”

 

The 2017-18 Hounds AAA are trying to follow in the legacy of numerous Notre Dame participants at Canada’s national midget event, with the last time being in 2010, when a star-studded roster, featuring current NHLers Morgan Reilly and Slater Koekkoek, took a second championship in two years back to Wilcox.

 

Overall, Notre Dame has four gold, two silver, and two bronze medals at the event since its inception as the Wrigley Cup in 1974.

 

And despite the current club’s stated desire to stay focussed on being present in the moment, and not taking a second for granted, they are still young men with big dreams.

 

“I’d say it would mean the world, not just for us, but for the whole school,” says Renwick.

 

“We don’t want to let this opportunity slip, to look back at it in a couple years, and have regrets. We are going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, to go into the next rounds focussed, determined, and giving it all to bring a championship back to Notre Dame.”

Championship Round:
Weds March 21 - 8:00PM @ Notre Dame
Sat March 24 - 7:00PM @ Prince Albert
Weds March 28 - 7:30PM @ Notre Dame
Fri March 30 - 7:00PM @ Prince Albert
Sun April 1 - 1:30PM @ Notre Dame

All Games available via Notre Dame Livestream www.livestream.com/notredamehounds