Wolves Advance to the Quarterfinals

by Jeff Barrett

Watertown, NY - The 2025 FPHL playoffs began tonight in the Watertown Municipal Arena with the 4th place Watertown Wolves hosting the 5th place Motor City Rockers in a one game wild card matchup, with the winner advancing to the first round to battle the Binghamton Black Bears on Friday.

The Wolves and Rockers met seven times in the regular season, with the Wolves winning five of those contests. 

Domenic Della Civita got the scoring started for the Wolves at the 11:06 mark on a blast from just inside the blue line, beating the Rockers starter Ricardo Gonzalez, assisted by Junior Harris and Trevor Neumann.

The Wolves would hold the 1-0 lead at the break, while outshooting the Rockers 14-6.

At just 1:28 into the second Steven Klinck padded the Watertown lead with a shot from below the goal line that hit Gonzalez in the back and dropped in the goal. The assist on the goal belonged to Dustin Henning, making the score 2-0.

The Rockers Brendan Ronan cut the lead in half as he was able to redirect a pass at the 5:02 mark, beating the Wolves Breandan Colgan. Tristen Wells and Mathias Tellstrom were credited with the helpers on the goal.

At 16:27 of the period, Watertown regained the 2 goal advantage on a Junior Harris goal, making the score 3-1, with assists going to Kyle Powell and Chase DiBari.

The Wolves again outshot the Rockers, this time 16-7 and took the 3-1 lead to the room after 40 minutes of play.

At 5:54 of the third. TJ Sneath gave the Rockers some life as he intercepted a Wolves clear and lifted one to the top of the goal, assisted by Eli Rivers and Nick Gullo, making it 3-2 in favor of Watertown.

Trevor Grasby extended the Watertown lead to 4-2 at 11:03 assisted by Junior Harris and Davide Gaeta to close out the scoring, and send Watertown into the FPHL Empire Division playoffs.

The Wolves will now host the Binghamton Black Bears on Friday evening at 7:30. Game two will be on Saturday in Binghamton with game 3 if necessary scheduled for Monday.