Hockey night in Thorold three time zones from home
Three Southern Tier Admirals graduates reunite at RBC Cup championships in Chilliwack, B.C.
For Ryan Miotto, the 2018 RBC Cup Canadian junior A championship final had some déjà vu, though definitely not déjà view.
The 18-year-old couldn’t help but think about growing up in Thorold when he saw friends from his hometown on the ice with him in Sunday’s final in Chilliwack, B.C.
Miotto definitely had been there, done that and had the memories of bruises from hard checks into the boards to prove it.
While the feeling felt oh so familiar, oh so Thorold, the wardrobe was entirely different in Sunday’s remarkable sequel. Instead of wearing Southern Tier Admirals uniforms, as they and Miotto had in triple A midget back home, Ben Evans and Mitchell Mendonca this time were playing for the Wellington Dukes.
Of course, Miotto didn’t appear the same to them either. He wore No. 7 in the Chilliwack Chiefs lineup.
That’s not all he wore.
At the end of the game — a 4-2, come-from-behind victory for the host Chiefs — the son of Chris and Nancy Miotto of Thorold also wore a big grin as he hoisted the RBC Cup.
“It was definitely a unique experience playing against these guys in Chilliwack,” he said with a laugh. “They’re all great players.
“It was really great playing against them.”
The Chiefs felt pressure going into the RBC Cup tournament as the host team. There was a sense of unfinished business.
“We wanted to go through the front door, and win out our league but that didn’t happen,” said Miotto, whose Chiefs lost to the favoured Prince George Spruce Kings in seven games in the first round in the playoffs.
“They were a really good team, the last game could have gone either way.”
He went to the British Columbia Hockey League at the beginning of the 2017-18 season after playing parts of two seasons close to home in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League with the Welland Jr. Canadians.
“It’s definitely a step up,” he said in a cellphone interview
from Chilliwack. “The pace and the players are faster.
“Playing in the junior B loop last year (2016-17) definitely helped me get ready for this league for sure.”
It took the 6-foot-1, 181-pound forward some time to adjust to the style of play in the BCHL.
“At first, there was definitely an adjustment,” he said.
“The pace is a little bit faster and the players are a little bit more skilled.
“But over time, as you’re practising with these good players and playing against them, you just learn.”
This was Miotto’s first time living away from his parents and two younger sisters. Technology, he said, helped ease feelings of homesickness considerably.
“I would always talk to my parents through Skype or whatever,” he said. “I definitely missed just seeing my mom and dad and my two sisters, and all my friends back home.”
The longest bus ride in the GOJHL was “about 50 minutes” to Caledonia. With the Chiefs, it was eight hours — one way! — to Prince George.
“When I first came out, there were a lot of bored times on the bus, but you learn what to do to make the time go faster,” Miotto said, speaking from new-found experience.
“By the end of it, the bus trips were feeling like no time at all.”
Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains in the southern British Columbia interior about 100 kilometres southeast of Vancouver. Miotto said he never got tired of the scenery going from his billet home to the rink for practices and games.
“I always got a pretty good view. To see mountains around you, it’s definitely beautiful,” he said of the city of 84,000.
Miotto, who won’t turn 19 until August, can return to Chilliwack for another season.
He is committed to majoring in business and playing Division I hockey at Canisius College in Buffalo beginning in 2019-20 on a scholarship.
In Chilliwack, he studied part
‘‘ “When I first came out, there were a lot of bored times on the bus, but you learn what to do to make the time go faster. By the end of it, the bus trips were feeling like no time at all.” RYAN MIOTTO Thorold native and Chilliwack Chiefs forward
time at University of the Fraser Valley taking one course each semester, but that jump-start to his university education won’t cut into his NCAA eligibility. He can still play four years.
Miotto had nine goals and 21 assists in 57 regular-season games in Chilliwack.
In addition to Evans and Mendonca, the Wellington lineup included former Niagara Falls Canucks Andrew Barbeau and Frank Pucci.