Win or lose Saturday afternoon at the Gerry McCrory Sports Complex, the Sudbury U15 AA Lady Wolves were going to see another game.
Like so many minor hockey teams at this time of year, the Sudbury U12 AAA Wolves had no such luxury earlier that same day, at the same venue.
One of only two teams in their age bracket in the Northern Ontario “AAA” Hockey League (NOHL) this year, the SMHA representatives knew they were in tough in their best of three final showdown with the Soo U12 AAA Jr Greyhounds, having posted a record of 4-9-1 in regular season play versus the Lock City crew.
A tough 2-1 loss on Friday night in a contest that saw the Wolves carry a 1-0 lead into the third period of play would allow for absolutely no wiggle room as the teams reconvened just before noon the next day.
Trailing 3-2 after two, the Sudbury lads brought the crowd to their feet when Jarrett Marshall joined teammates Ally Hebert and Ben Sabourin on the scoresheet, knotting the contest at three.
With overtime looming, the Hounds would pull another one out of the fire as Brody McCaig netted his second goal of the game, finishing off a pretty three-way passing play with Lucca D’Agostini and Rafael Fata with just 1:21 showing on the clock.
Given this is what is effectively the “minor age” year for these players, the 2-0 series triumph for the Soo spells the end of the season for both teams, with Greyhounds head coach Kyle Jones fully cognizant of the closeness of teams who were separated by a total of less than ten goals once the 14-game schedule came to an end.
“We’re very evenly matched with these guys,” acknowledged Jones. “Those were two really good hockey games. It could have gone either way. We have a very close group of kids that are relentless. They’re a very easy group to coach, a pleasure to coach.”
There was no lack of advanced scouting on the opponents in this series given the familiarity that both teams enjoy in the north, with both staffs fully aware of where success was likely to lie.
“They’re a hard working team so I knew that we had to match their work ethic, for sure,” said Jones, whose team also received goals from Rafael Fata and Brayden Morley in the game two win. “We wanted to stay disciplined. We tend to get into some penalty trouble and that can get to us some time.”
Outshooting the Wolves 33-25, the Hounds overcame a late penalty to net the game-winning goal after surrendering the lead with just over four minutes to play. “We know that 11 year old kids can have emotional highs and lows,” said Jones. “It’s very easy for them to get down so we reminded them that the game wasn’t over.”
“It was still tied and we were playing well enough to win,” added Jones. “We’ve been fortunate enough to be in some close games like that and you learn from it.”
Case in point, the previous night as Ally Hebert broke the ice in a scoreless game with a second period goal only to see the Greyhounds early with a pair of tallies early in the third to earn the game one victory. The comeback on goals from Lucca D’Agostini and Luca Jones spoiled an outstanding 39-save performance from Sudbury netminder Tait Cunningham between the pipes.
A few hours after the wrap on the NOHL final, captain Sadie Frantz and the remainder of the U15 AA Lady Wolves took to the ice, also down one game to none and playing host to the top ranked team in their age group in the country, the Durham West Lightning.
While a 3-1 game two loss might have been disappointing for the local crew, the fact is that the OWHA league playoffs run completely separate from the OWHA Provincials, with every single one of the Lady Wolves teams having qualified for the all-Ontario championship taking place from April 10th to 13th in the GTA.
For as much as there was a second life to be had, if you will, for the team that currently sits fourth in Canada, the mindset was not to rely on said cushion. “We were playing for one more game in this series,” said Frantz. “We knew that it was going to be a good game up here today.”
“We played like it was all on the line.”
Sudbury native Whitney Basso, Brielle Beauchesne and top-end talent Savannah Halleran found the back of the net for the Lightning with Ella Sabourin replying in a losing cause for the Lady Wolves.
“We all watched the (game one) game tape together and picked out some things that we wanted to do to challenge this team (Durham West) back in Sudbury,” said Frantz, her crew having handed the Lightning one of their only five losses (in 67 games) this year in the final of the Ottawa Lady Senators Winter Classic in January.
“A lot of family and friends came to watch. We wanted to play well in front of our fans.”
As they ready for a 32-team field at provincials with a very realistic shot at making it through to the Sunday morning semis, the U15AA Lady Wolves will bring to a close arguably the best ever season for a SDGHA team in this category in program history.
“I feel that this year especially, everyone really put in the work to get to the level that we’re at,” said Frantz. “This is our last year together as a group, so we wanted to work hard and play for each other.”
Meanwhile in Powassan, the Sudbury U14 AAA Wolves wrapped up a flawless 5-0 playoff run, capturing the NOHL banner with a 4-1 win in the final over the Soo Jr Greyhounds. The triumph qualifies the entire team for the U14 OHL Cup after the NOHA decided to do an about face this year and send the NOHL champions, as a team, to the tournament that takes place April 17th to 19th in Kingston.
