With 40 wins and only two losses this season, the members of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Wolves U18 rep team have one more major milestone on their radar: bringing home a provincial hockey championship.

They’ll kick off that quest on Friday afternoon in Georgetown when they faceoff against the Mitchell Meteors in their first match of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship tourney.

The nucleus of this U18 team competed in the same tourney last year in Kingston and came up a bit short in three really close games.

So, with that experience under their belts and several new players on the roster this year as older players moved on, coach Adam Whyte’s Wolves are on a mission.

“These kids, they just want to win,” Whyte said in an interview. “They’re amazing.”

“They play hard and they’re having a lot of fun doing it. A lot of these kids have been friends for their whole minor hockey career.”

There’s no minor hockey in NOTL after U18, so for older kids “graduating” this season, the chance to play for an OMHA championship is the pinnacle. And win or lose, they’re going to give it their all, Whyte said.

This team has done a lot of winning this season. With a 40-2-6 record in league and tournament play (including winning two tourneys), the Wolves know how to kick it up a notch.

Whyte figures they have a solid recipe for success, with the best goaltending tandem in the league in Quinten Davis and Nick Sattarzadeh, “really strong” defence and, up front, “we score a lot of goals.”

They qualified for the Georgetown OMHA tourney by ousting Pelham in three games, with a 5-3 win, 2-2 tie and a 5-0 victory in the finale. That made them Niagara District champs, but they’re gunning for more.

“We’re not a bigger, physical team, we just work hard,” said Whyte.

“These boys are just gamers. When it becomes a tournament and there’s something on the line, they just bring their compete to another level.”

“They are just awesome kids who work hard, love to play and love to represent Niagara-on-the-Lake.”

Minor hockey association president Peter Flynn is very happy with how the NOTL program overall has improved over the past few years and he’s proud of what this U18 team has accomplished.

While several NOTL teams have won provincial titles over the years, he noted this group, some of whom have played together since they were eight or nine, has come close but just missed out on winning it all.

“They were there last year and lost, so that experience will help them,” Flynn said. “They’re looking pretty good based on their performance” all season.

Whyte said with injuries the team’s full roster of 14 skaters hasn’t been available for a lot of games so the Wolves had a short bench most of the year.

“But it’s conditioned our kids and everyone’s got a lot of ice time.”

Still, he said they’re not taking anything for granted.

A 4-3 loss to Fort Erie on March 2 during the playoff round-robin and their 2-2 tie versus Pelham on March 22 actually helped refocus his squad, which had dominated many teams during the season.

“It just kind of woke them up and helped them realize that they’re going to have to work for this, that it’s not just going to be given to them.”

He’s confident that will serve them well in the short but intense OMHA tourney.

“It’s going to be a difficult tournament, but it’s going to be good hockey,” Whyte said.

For those NOTL players who will be wrapping up their minor hockey careers, “hopefully we can send these kids off and give them something to remember for a long time.”

The U18 rep team includes: Ethan Dulas, Nate Ditto, Eddie Friesen, Logan Rossi, Sheldon Walker, Devin Hunter, Dylan Price, Jacob Dulas, Mitch Olsen, Noah Whyte, Easton Andres, Calo Zambito, Josh Dulas, Billy Pillitteri-Smith, Jacob Cook, plus goaltenders Quinten Davis and Nick Sattarzadeh.

Whyte’s coaching staff includes assistants Ryan Parsons and Justin York, and trainer Glen Davis.