Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Growing up in a troubled home with his parents on the path to divorce, Tyler Uravage needed an escape.
He found it on the ice.
As a teenager, Uravage turned to the hockey rink to deal with turmoil at home, spending hours firing pucks into the net.
Back then, the ice offered solace and eased his frustration.
Today, Uravage, 21, is using hockey as a stepping stone to a bright future. The Hudson resident recently accepted an offer to play Division III hockey at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Uravage will be playing for legendary college coach Mike Eaves, and St. Olaf is building a new $8 million arena that will be ready when he begins his sophomore season in 2019.
Uravage has a lot to look forward to after embarking on his hockey path in 2012 with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights as a 15-year-old.
While his future is full of opportunity, Uravage is hesitant to think about his past.
“When I was 12 my mom developed a disease — alcoholism. It made her into a different person,” Uravage said. “My dad always did his best for me, but she wasn’t there during the teenage years.
“I used hockey as an escape from problems at home.”
Uravage saw his first hockey game when he was 3 years old. He went to a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins game and was mesmerized by the large crowd and the fast action on the ice. Throughout his childhood Uravage played several sports, but there was something about that Penguins game that made him lean toward hockey.
He started playing hockey at 4 years old and even scored a goal as a mite during the intermission of a Penguins game. His father, Jerry, remembers Tyler looking toward him and raising his arms after the goal. A friend took a picture of the moment and Jerry has it emblazoned on a coffee mug that he looks at every day.
“That was a special moment, and from that point I did everything I could so he could play,” Jerry said. “For years it was nothing but travel, travel, travel and rink, rink, rink.”
Five years later, Tyler’s world began to unravel.
That’s when his mother’s battle with alcohol began, Jerry said, and the family was shattered. Jerry did what he could to shield his son from the constant fighting and he worked tirelessly to be able to pay to keep Tyler in hockey.
“I didn’t want to let him see my hurt,” Jerry said. “He was playing the game to cope.
“When I look back at it now, if it wasn’t for hockey during that tough time Tyler could’ve very easily gone down a different path.”
But with hockey, Tyler not only had an out but a support system as well.
Family friend Nicole Theodore, who owns the Arena Bar and Grill in Wilkes-Barre, knew hockey well from the Penguin players that visited the restaurant. She provided plenty of encouragement for Tyler and acted as a second mother during his teenage years. Even the families of Tyler’s teammates got involved to help provide stability during the trying time.
It was apparent that hockey was not only helping Tyler on the ice, but off it as well.
Theodore said hockey also strengthened the bond between father and son.
“I have seen Jerry tear up on many occasions whenever Tyler leaves town to play hockey,” she said. “That bond has become so strong.”
While Tyler dealt with turmoil on the homefront, he also faced a challenge on the ice as a teenager.
While his teammates grew, Tyler didn’t.
During his first two seasons with the Knights when he was 15 and 16 years old, Tyler’s passion for the game was held in check by his small stature. He was just 5-2 and couldn’t compete with the bigger players. During his first season with the Knights, Tyler registered just one assist in 23 games.
There were doubts surrounding Tyler’s physical ability to compete in the sport he loved.
“People told me I couldn’t play because of my height,” he said.
Before his third season with the Knights in 2014, Tyler finally began to grow. He reached a height of six feet, and as he rose in stature, his stats did the same.
Tyler scored 51 points in 44 games with the Knights that season, and he felt like he had a shot to build a hockey career.
In 2015-16, Tyler registered 28 points in 26 games as an 18-year-old with the Portland Pirates in the United States Premier Hockey League, which is a noted stepping stone to college hockey.
The next season, Tyler played with the Binghamton Jr. Senators in the Tier III Hockey League, finishing with 92 points in 44 games, good enough for seventh in the league.
After battling through troubled times at home and doubts about his ability to play, things were coming together for Tyler.
Now, he was opening eyes as a legitimate power forward prospect.
“Putting up better than a point-per-game meant a lot to me. It showed me where I was as a player,” he said. “I remember being told I couldn’t play and I still feel like I have to prove everybody wrong. I also have to prove I can do this for everyone that helped me as well.”
Tyler recently wrapped up another successful season with the New Hampshire Avalanche in the Eastern Hockey League. He totalled 15 goals and 38 points in 40 games and his stock continued to rise.
Still, Tyler couldn’t help but think about the past he overcame thanks to hockey.
“It’s hard to think about where I’d be without hockey. I don’t even want to think about that route,” Tyler said. “The past is a totally different world.”
His father agrees.
“He’s on to the next chapter. That page in his life is kind of closed,” Jerry said.
The next chapter actually began last fall when Tyler was at a prospect’s camp in Minneapolis. That’s when Eaves — who has coached in the NHL and college for 30 years, including leading Wisconsin to the 2006 national title — first saw Tyler on the ice.
Eaves was introduced to Jerry and Nicole by his son, Ben, who got to know them when he played for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 12 years ago.
“After Ben introduced us they told me about Tyler and as they talked, I watched him on the ice and realized this young man is a pretty good hockey player,” Eaves said.
Over the next year, Tyler received offers to play from a dozen schools, but the chance to play for Eaves was too much to resist.
“He is one of the biggest reasons why I chose St. Olaf,” Tyler said. “As a coach, he’s been through it all and has done it all.”
Eaves knows everything that Tyler has overcome and he’s equally impressed with him as a player and a person. Eaves also isn’t surprised that hockey helped Tyler cope and heal.
He’s seen it happen before.
“With Tyler, hockey helped him grow up and it led him on the right path,” Eaves said. “The longer I’ve been involved in coaching, it’s evident that hockey and sports in general is a scaled-down model of life. Tyler is fixated on becoming the best hockey player he can be and that approach will help him in the real world as well.”
St. Olaf had 15 players graduate over the last two seasons, Eaves said, and he needs young players. He likes Tyler’s two-way game as a center, said he is strong on the puck and sees the ice well.
Under Eaves, Tyler will have a shot to play right away.
But there’s another element that Tyler is focused on, in addition to hockey.
He wants to earn a degree. Tyler has chosen Exercise Science as his major, in large part due to his love of training for hockey.
With a degree, Tyler said, he has a backup plan in case hockey after college doesn’t work out.
Either way, it’s a winning proposition and a bright future that is welcome after a past that had some dark days.
“Hockey means something else for me now. There isn’t much wrong going on in my life, and hockey isn’t so much an escape as it is a goal for my future,” Tyler said. “I want to earn the best grades and put up the best stats I can so when I do leave college, I have the best opportunity in hockey or in life.”
