Hungry Wolves are playing at their peak
Team strikes silver at National Winter Games in Calgary
The Peterborough Wolves Special Olympics floor hockey team might have one more run left in them.
The Wolves followed up on their 2020 gold-medal victory at the Special Olympics National Winter Games by bringing home the silver from the 2024 National Winter Games in Calgary on Feb. 28 to March 2.
The Wolves had all but one player return from their 2020 team, adding three newcomers, and head coach Joan Moriarty thinks the core of the team is at its peak right now.
The National Winter Games are held every four years.
“We have been to two nationals back-to-back and that’s never happened before,” said Moriarty. “It depends on how your team grows. We have had a very strong team and mostly the same guys for the last 10 to 12 years. They’re mostly now at their peak. We have three new people since COVID and they all did really well and gives them incentive to stay. We are probably good for another round.”
After winning the provincial championship last year, the Wolves posted a 2-1-2 record in seeding games on the opening two days of competition to get placed into the A Division.
They defeated British Columbia and Manitoba and tied Quebec in round-robin play to set the playoff matchups. They then defeated B.C. by a lopsided score in the semifinals before losing to longtime rival Quebec, 5-2, in the gold-medal game.
“Even though we didn’t win the gold, which was our intention, you always have to have that goal, they played really well and didn’t seem that disappointed. They were maybe disappointed not to win the gold, but they played as hard as they could and were beaten by a better team,” said Moriarty.
“The guys know the Quebec team. I don’t believe they were there in 2020, at least not that team, because we beat B.C. last time, who were in a rebuilding stage this year. They played their hearts out and they like that Quebec team, because we used to go to Montreal quite a bit and play them in tournaments pre-COVID, so they know a lot of guys on the team. It was almost like getting beat by your buddies. There were big hugs and it was nice to see that camaraderie even though you’re playing against them.”
The Wolves thought they were headed to the 2021 Special Olympics World Games after their win in Thunder Bay in 2020 but, about a week after they returned home, the COVID-19 pandemic flared up and the competition was cancelled for the next two years.
The worlds were supposed to be in Russia and, after that country’s invasion of Ukraine, the idea of rescheduling those games was cancelled. Now, international Special Olympics has replaced floor hockey, its inaugural sport, with floor ball, but Canadian and United States organizations have so far stuck with floor hockey.
Moriarty said they would have learned floor ball if they’d had the opportunity to go to worlds. “My team would have been able to do that. They’re athletic enough and are such good athletes it wouldn’t have taken them any time to pick it up and be able to play competitively against any team,” she said.
She’s not sure Special Olympics Canada will follow the European organizations, which have chosen floor ball.
“We’ve sort of talked about it, but it’s a big expense. The floor hockey equipment we have now is expensive,” she said.
The Wolves were among 300 Ontario athletes who competed among 1,250 athletes and staff in a variety of winter sports.
Opening ceremonies were held at Calgary’s Saddledome, home of the National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames, but Ontario, hit by a flu bug, including some Wolves players, didn’t participate in the closing ceremonies, said Moriarty.