Tanner Ames knows he has the opportunity of a lifetime ahead of him.
The 19-year-old Montague native has been playing hockey his whole life, and the goaltender recently signed with the Northern Colorado Eagles in the North American Hockey League, a Tier II junior hockey league.
Turning 20 in December, this is the final year Ames can play juniors, where he hopes to make the most of his final season.
“I’m pretty excited to go out to Colorado,” Ames said. “It’s a great opportunity and a great organization to be part of. It’s going to be a lot of hard work but I’m looking forward to it. With the team we have out there, it’s going to be great.”
Ames began skating when he was four years old with Kerry Togneri at the Collins-Moylan Rink in Greenfield before playing in the Franklin County Hockey Association (FCHA). He played for Amherst in the Greater Springfield League up until midgets hockey.
He then moved on to play for the Springfield Pics in the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL), playing on their U16, Empire and Elite teams.
After graduating from Four Rivers Charter School in 2018, Ames voyaged to Auburn, Maine, to play for the Twin City Thunder, a Tier III USPHL team, for the 2018 season. He has over 50 games of junior hockey experience
Growing up, hockey was Ames’ life, and he credits those programs for getting him to the place he is at now.
“That’s where I started so that’s where I went every night,” Ames said of growing up playing in the FCHA. “If I wanted to stay home from school and was pretending I was sick, my parents would bribe me to go by telling me if I skipped school, I couldn’t go to the rink that night.”
While this will be his final season in juniors, Ames doesn’t want to see his hockey career come to a close.
The netminder hopes his time in Colorado and playing for head coach Steve Haddon can earn him a college tryout or offer at the seasons’ conclusion, allowing him to continue playing in net.
He held multiple offers with different junior teams, but felt the Eagles would give him the best chance to play college hockey.
“It’s a great spot to be,” Ames said. “My ultimate goal is to get into college and play college hockey and get an education with that as well as doing what I love in playing hockey. The coach out there has great connections and my advisor group all have great connections.”
Another reason for choosing to play for Northern Colorado went into the team’s success.
Haddon has been running the Eagles for eight years, posting an impressive 205-70-17 record, and the stable structure was something Ames felt suited him best.
“The league we’re in is a really good league,” Ames remarked. “There’s a lot of exposure in the league. The organization as a whole, it’s been around a while and shown no downsides.”
Ames has to earn his time in the crease, as the starting job was never promised to him. He is one of two goalies joining Northern Colorado, with the team having other veteran goalies on the roster.
The Eagles travel throughout the West Coast for games, playing as many as three games in as many days. He hopes to be able to find ice time as it would be extremely difficult for any goalie to suit up three nights in a row.
“I have some great competition,” Ames said. “There are other guys, veterans on the team, and I have to work my way up to where I want to be. The coach is great, he calls me all the time. He checks in and he looks at me and the other guy as coming in as equal. We both have junior experience and we each have to earn our spot on the team.”
To prepare for the upcoming season, Ames flew out to San Antonio for a three-week training camp. While there, he joined a high-level men’s league, where he played against teams that had 7-8 retired NHL players on them.
The experience helped improve his game and get him ready for the improved competition he will face in Tier II juniors.
“I’ve been working hard on and off the ice,” Ames said. “It was an opportunity of a lifetime to play with those guys. As a goalie, you learn a lot from the 60 minutes you’re on the ice with the talent they have.”
Ames first tried playing goalie 10 years ago, and fell in love with the position as soon as he put the pads on.
He enjoys having control over everything, as well as being the last line of defense.
He understands that as a goalie, you have to be mentally tough. When the team wins, typically the credit goes to the forwards and defensemen. When the team loses, the first dose of blame is typically dealt out to the man in the net.
Ames would have it no other way.
“I love it,” he said. “I might be insane for saying that. I love it when the adrenaline is rising and you’re the backstop of the team. It’s a hard position to play but wouldn’t choose any other.”
Ames feels the mental point of being a goalie is the most important aspect, and his new coach feels he does a good job of keeping his head in the game.
“Tanner is an aggressive and athletic goaltender,” Haddon said in a press release. “He is very calm in the net, even when he is under fire and has to bail out his team.”
The grind of the preseason starts Sept. 4, with Ames flying out to Colorado — his first time traveling to the West Coast — a week early to get on the ice with his teammates, do team bonding activities and community work as well as working out and training for the season.