2026 was not a banner year for the Sudbury Lady Wolves when it came to the OWHA Provincial Championships this past weekend.
It wasn’t just the fact that no gold medal winning pennant would make its way to the nickel city this spring. That happens with a fair bit of regularity.
But for the first time in a while, the only Lady Wolves’ team taking to the ice on Final Four Sunday would be the U9 “C” girls – and that solely because their tournament is a pure festival, with no medals to be won.
Now in fairness to all teams, the margin for error that used to exist is now all but gone. The size of the field has increased to the pint where teams must win their four-team pool in order to advance to quarter-finals on Saturday afternoon/evening.
As recently as less than a decade ago, the top two in each bracket could move on and while it was sudden death elimination showdowns from that point on, it made for far less of the “three and out” scenarios that we now see.
Exactly how challenging is the pathway to gold?
The Sudbury U15 “AA” Lady Wolves surrendered just a single goal against over the course of four games – and were sent packing in the round of eight.
Both the Sudbury U22 “A” and the Senior “A” Lady Wolves failed to make it out of their groupings – even though neither team lost a game.
By its very nature, girls hockey still features far more extremely low-scoring games compared to the lads, especially at higher levels of play. Coach Scott Rienguette and the U15 “AA” reps opened with a 1-0 win over the Belleville Bearcats, blasted the Sarnia Lady Sting 6-0 and played to a scoreless draw with the Central York Panthers.
Unfortunately, all it would take is one bad bounce and a 1-0 loss to the Waterloo Ravens to deny the locals a chance for a podium finish on Sunday – and this despite showcasing a commitment to defensive excellence that was borne of trial and error.
“We worked a lot on making good first passes out of our zone,” said coach Rienguette. “We’ve supported them all year, telling them it’s okay to fumble it. We would rather you do that in trying to make a play rather than just throwing it up the wall to nobody.”
“They all seemed to buy-in.”
Make no mistake: this was a very competitive Sudbury squad in a division that is among the toughest in the province. The U15 “AA” girls finished third in the seven-team Central Division with a record of 11-10-1, giving way to cautious optimism.
“I was expecting to be competitive – and advancing was our goal,” said Rienguette.
The key, however, was to avoid the achievement of that goal giving way to unforgiving pressure for a group of largely first year high-school students. “The girls were all super positive, which I have preached forever,” said Rienguette. “Positivity with each other goes a heck of a long way.”
His “glass half full” filter also helped his team overcome the disappointment of a post-season run that lasted but three games (OWHA runs league playoffs separate from their provincial championship playdowns). “I know it’s not fun not to advance in league playoffs, but having those three weeks off really helped; the rest really helped.”
“And stepping away from the rink (the team enjoyed the full March break off) makes you miss it more.”
Goaltenders Kloe Rienguette and Ava Wicklander combined to record three shutouts and for as much as goals were not easy to come by, Alysssa Bryant potted a pair against Sarnia and was at her creative best throughout the weekend.
Meanwhile, the U22 “A” crew opened with a 1-1 tie with the Kitchener Lady Rangers, thumped the Clarington Flames 8-0 but played to a second draw, 2-2 with the Flamborough Flames and lost out to the latter by one point. It was even more heartbreaking for the Senior “A” ladies who played the Scarborough Sharks dead even (1-1), melted the Ottawa Ice (4-1) and kept pace with the Cambridge Roadrunners (2-2) – but fell victim to the tie-breaking formula.
The U18 A girls won two of three but did not move on; nor did the U13 “AA” girls who were fully competitive at 1-1-1. And the U18 "AA" Lady Wolves had a tough go of it on the heels of a very solid season, dropping their first two games to the Ancaster Avalanche (3-1) and the Stratford Aces (3-0) before earning a 2-2 tie with the Durham West Lightning to close out the event.
Still with local female hockey talent at provincials, goaltender Kalia Pharand, committed to the Clarkson Golden Knights for the 2026-2027 NCAA season, backstopped the Mississauga Hurricanes to a bronze medal finish in the Elite U22 division, edging the Central York Panthers 3-2 in the battle for third place.
