Miller carving hockey path at Port Hope

All that’s missing now is the trophy that matters most.
Tyler Miller capped a stellar sophomore season in the Ontario Provincial Junior ‘A’ Hockey League by capturing the MVP award for his Port Hope Predators, but the trophy most on his mind now is the Dudley Hewitt Cup (awarded to the top Junior ‘A’ team in central Canada).
Miller tied for the team lead in points with 63 (though he did it in three less games than teammate Chad Dunlop). And along with Dunlop, he also led the OPJHL’s East division in scoring during the regular season.
“I think we have a pretty good shot at it this year,” Miller said of his team’s chances of improving on last year’s second-round exit.
“Last year we sent three or four kids to the NCAA program after the year, and this year they are looking to send eight of us, so a bit deeper of a lineup, for sure,” he noted.
The 19-year-old from Fort Frances scored 23 goals to go with 40 assists in 46 games—a stark contrast from his rookie year in the league where he had just 35 points.
Of his 63 points, 20 were scored on the power play to go with four short-handed goals and a team-best six game-winners.
“We really had special interest in Tyler early on,” recalled Tim Clayden, the Predators’ director of hockey. “He came out of the high school program [in Fort Frances], and that program deserves a lot of credit because it develops a lot of good players.
“We’ve seen him grow as a hockey player and as a young man, and he is arguably the premier winger in our league down here,” Clayden added. “He’s part of the Port Hope family and we were ecstatic with his decision to come back for another year.”
Miller plans to play one more season in the OPJHL before going the college route—preferably through a scholarship to a U.S. school.
“My plan is to play Division I somewhere [after this year], not sure where yet though, but we’ll decide later on,” Miller noted. “There are three or four schools that I’ve talked to, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
But if that doesn’t work out, Clayden said there are a number of Division III schools which still have good hockey programs and, just as importantly, offer a high level of education at the same time.
Dunlop has since graduated to the semi-pro ranks, but Miller’s centre from a year ago, Jeremy McCarty, will be returning—keeping two-thirds of Port Hope’s top line intact.
The Fort Frances product followed up his stellar regular-season showing with an equally impressive playoff run, tallying 13 points in six games.
“I don’t pride myself on scoring against all the weak teams; it doesn’t say much about yourself,” Miller admitted. “I get up for the big games and have fun during the rest of them.”
Miller heads to Port Hope on Aug. 27, with the season getting underway for real on Sept. 5. He’s completely healed from a late-season injury, and has been working hard both on and off the ice this summer.
“The ice is finally in [at Ice for Kids Arena] so I’ll be getting more skating in now, and I was skating across the river for two weeks before that,” Miller noted.