The game plan for the Sudbury U13 AAA Wolves is simple enough: they must play to their identity.
If we are to put any stock in “My Hockey Rankings” at all – and it has generally served as a fairly decent predictor of relative strength within minor hockey circles in Ontario – the SMHA representatives will enter the 2025 U13-AAA All-Ontario Championships as the underdogs in all games but their match-up with the Thunder Bay Kings.
“The way we are going to win games isn’t by scoring six goals,” suggested towering blue-liner Ethan Caetano, a grade 7 student at St Benedict Intermediate School. “It’s going to be just a few goals and working hard. We like more of a dump and chase, grinding type of game.”
Thankfully, it’s also been an area of focus throughout much of the 2024-2025 campaign for head coach Jordan Kuruliak and his staff of Daniel Leclair, Eric Caetano, Brian Kuruliak, trainers Sami Dabliz and Daniel Mead and on-ice volunteer Tyler Beskorowany.
“We’re going to have to focus mainly on our defensive zone, getting the pucks out, getting the pucks out from the front of the net and into the corner,” noted Jordan Kuruliak, graduate of the SMHA AAA system who would play with the Nickel Capital Wolves (GNML) as well as the Sudbury Jr Wolves (NOJHL).
“The defensive zone is going to be big in the next two weeks.”
This is hardly a new refrain for a crew that finished behind both the North Bay Trappers (NOHA representatives at the all-Ontario tournament) and the Soo Jr Greyhounds in NOHL regular season play this year.
Improvement, while notable, is also extremely gradual.
“At the start of the year, we would often just run around, playing pond hockey,” noted Caetano. “Now we are more systematic, which is helping our goals for and against.”
That mindset, while critical, is not necessarily something that comes naturally to a group of 12 and 13 year olds – especially not those of a forward variety – though the message is clearly beginning to sink in.
“Being responsible defensively for me is staying high,” noted small but speedy centerman Massimo Gianfrancesco, a grade 7 student at Lo-Ellen Park Intermediate School. “If you creep in too low in the offensive zone, you can kind of get caught. I’ve learned that staying a bit higher helps our “D” when the opposing team is trying to break out of their zone.”
Breaking the natural habits of trying to be all things in all areas of the ice is a challenge that coaches of most teams of this age or slightly younger can relate to. In the case of the stalwart defenceman with the lengthy stride and the ability to cover a lot of ice in a hurry, it is sometimes living with the reality that less is more.
“Of course you want to help your team with scoring and assisting – but you also want to play positionally well,” said Caetano. “Maybe it’s not the offense (that you’re contributing), but you’re giving your team a good stop or two. I try and play in the hash marks and below. That’s all of my space and the forwards have the rest.”
“I find that I’ve gotten a lot better with reining it in.”
Realistically speaking, the U13 AAA Wolves are not about to “out-skill” any one of the Vaughan Kings, Barrie Jr Colts, Chatham-Kent Cyclones, North Bay Trappers or the Ottawa Valley Titans, all teams that are ranked in the top 20 in the province, comfortably ahead of the locals.
“Our style of hockey is unselfish hockey, working hard in the corners, back-checking and fore-checking and working hard all over the ice,” said Gianfrancesco. “I don’t think we have to change the style of play that we play. Just work hard and compete with them and we’ll do well.”
“If we come out to play, we can skate with most of the teams,” added coach Kuruliak.
All of this said, no one involved with the team is oblivious to the challenges that the group has endured when facing some of Ontario’s best in tournament play. But when it comes to having a chance to host the provincial elite, there is so much more to be said that what can be captured in just wins and losses.
“It’s just about the experience,” stated Caetano. “We’re playing against probably ten or more elite future hockey prospects.”
“You can learn a lot from them just by looking at them, trying to mimic their movements and the style that they play,” added Gianfrancesco. “This might be the only time I ever get a chance to play in one of these tournaments. It’s just amazing to get a chance to compete with the top teams in Ontario.”
That is the kind of buy-in the staff loves to hear.
“To be the best, you have to play against the best – and we have that opportunity here,” noted Kuruliak.
Make no mistake that for as much as these youngsters might have some grounding into the reality of what exists in terms of the top end of minor hockey talent in this province, that doesn’t make being saddled with an “L” any less painful.
“It’s more of my parents, to be honest,” said Caetano with a smile, when asked about trying to maintain some perspective. “I’m more of a short-term guy. I want to win now. My parents keep telling me it’s about the long game.”
For the upcoming all-Ontario Championships, that end goal might be simply focused on trying to find a way to crack into the top four and giving themselves a shot at a medal.
Not that anyone is suggesting the above will be easy – but at least the Sudbury U13 AAA Wolves know and understand the steps that must be taken to achieve that end goal.
The remainder of the Sudbury roster features Graham Chevrier, Matthew Christakos, Adam Dabliz, Ben Dabous, Reese Doherty, Oliver Frantz, Rory Frood, Darren Harvey, Carter Leclair, Maxim Leclair, Tristan Mann, Gareth Mead, Andrew Polack, Austen Talbot and Keagan Thibault.
The U13 AAA Wolves will open the tournament at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9th, facing off against the Ottawa Valley Titans team that is guided into this competition by head coach Bryan Verrault, a very familiar hockey name for folks in these parts.
Semi-finals as well as bronze and gold medal games are scheduled for Sunday, April 13th, with all of the action taking place at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
