Steve Milton: ‘Just like a playoff game’: Kilty B’s entertain on school day
The Hamilton Kilty B's season will be judged mostly by what happens on the ice, but what happens off it carries big weight too.
The city's increasingly powerful Jr. B team concluded the 2022 portion of its promising season with a 3-1 victory over the Fort Erie Meteors - a GOJHL Golden Horseshoe Division rival - Thursday morning at a raucous Dave Andreychuk Arena. It was the team's first school day game, an event it plans to make an annual affair.
About 850 elementary school students from nearby Ridgemount, St. Michael and Annunciation of Our Lord - the Ridgemount and St. Michael kids walked to the game - plumped the crowd to about 1,000, more than half-filling the iconic mountain rink. The arena's notoriously low roof only served to amplify the vocal thunder.
The day before, about a dozen Kiltys had visited each of the three schools, playing floor hockey and prepping the students for Thursday as a way of saying thanks for coming to the game today" said veteran winger Matt Duarte, who scored Thursday's winning goal.
On Wednesday the schools immediately asked, How can we do this more?'" Kilty B's general manager Christian Wiley said of the morning match, which mirrors the OHL Bulldogs' student-oriented games. So we're going to set up a few more community programs with the schools so we can regularly visit. We're trying to build up relationships.
Obviously we want fans to come and notice our team but it's also important for our guys to learn about serving the community and being a mentor for younger kids."
With the win, Hamilton moved to within one point of first-place St. Catharines and increased its lead over third-place Fort Erie to six points.
It's clear that the Kiltys have something very interesting going on. They were good last year, edging the Meteors in the seventh game of the conference semifinal before losing the final in six games to St. Catharines, and they feel they've got even more depth this term.
That's one of the reasons Duarte, one of four 20-year-olds on the team, returned to Hamilton for his final months of junior eligibility after opening the season with Cranbrook of the higher-level B.C. Jr. A loop.
It was a hard decision to come back but I made the right call and I'm back where I belong," said Duarte, who had 59 points for the Kilty B's last season. I was looking for a bigger role and I could see the Kilty B's playing well into May, so I'm trying to get the most out of my final year.
I was a little worried coming in that we wouldn't be able to match that special closeness that made us so successful last year, but this group might be even closer."
Duarte plays on the No. 1 line with centre Dawson McKinney, his former Hamilton Jr. Bulldog teammate, and captain Justin Monteith. They're all 20, but much of the team depth is provided by younger players, including the team's current leading scorer, Nathan Phillips of Burlington, who's only 17.
There are 10 Kiltys who are 17 and another two, defenceman Nathan Omeri (who scored Thursday) and Bulldogs goaltending prospect David Egorov, who are just 16. Seven of the players are from Hamilton, five from Burlington.
That speaks to our depth," Duarte says. We have a lot of younger guys playing well and who are our best players some nights.
I also think one of our major strengths is our staff: we've got the best coaching staff in the league and best administrative staff in the league. We're treated like professionals, they take care of everything for us."
A few weeks ago, Kilty management decided the team needed a new voice behind the bench even though it was 14-4, so replaced head coach C.J. Morrison with Ken Peroff. He won his first eight games and Hamilton has now won 12 of its last 13.
I really think we can win it and I don't mean that in a prideful way," Wiley says. We're very deep, both on defence and in our forward groups. We're still not a perfect hockey team, no team is at this level."
With an eye toward the post-season, the Kiltys are likely to add some experienced help before the Jan. 10 trade deadline. Former Oakville Blades Jr. A defenceman Chris Gjoncaj, a McMaster student, joined Hamilton for his first game Thursday morning.
Like their GM, Kilty players sense they could be in this for the long haul. McKinney, who's from Binbrook, was Oshawa's fourth-round choice in the 2018 entry draft, and spent three years with the OHL team. He decided to spend this year at home before playing university hockey next year and has 29 points in his 23 games, including an empty-netter to clinch Thursday's victory.
It was my last year and I was looking to win a championship and I thought this was the best spot for me," said McKinney, who understands that the team's most senior players have to provide a template for their teenaged teammates.
You have to make sure you bring it every night, so the younger guys can look up to you, follow you, and do the same thing."
The Kiltys are now off until they host Niagara Falls on Jan. 5.
Going into the Christmas break you wanted the guys go home feeling as good as they can," Wiley says. The energy these kids draw from the school kids, it was just like a playoff game."
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com