Many others will soon follow suit but for the moment, the Sudbury U18 A Lady Wolves are the trendsetters in getting the 2026-2027 minor hockey pre-season exhibition game schedule under way.

The locals split a home and home set with the North Bay U18 A Jr Lakers, bouncing the visitors 6-1 on Friday night before running into a hot goaltender in a 2-1 loss on the road some 24 hours later.

Friday night at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex, the Lady Wolves jumped out to a 3-1 first period lead and never looked back, outshooting their opponent by a sizeable margin.

Registering a hat trick in the game, Ella Gatien broke the ice midway through period one, taking a lightning-quick feed from Raina Gauthier and making no mistake in tight with the Lakers goalie.

Aggressive forechecking pulled North Bay even about four minutes later but it would take Jenna Cole just 37 seconds to restore the Sudbury lead with a quick snap-shot, with Gatien making it 3-1 late in the frame, redirecting a shot from May Corson.

Gatien, Corson and Gauthier rounded out the scoring with Chloe Trudeau picking up the win in net while May Corson accounted for the only Sudbury goal in a losing effort on Saturday.

The Sudbury U18 A Lady Wolves are back in action this coming Friday evening, hosting the Timmins Falcons on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. at Countryside.

The balance of the 2026-2027 U18 A Lady Wolves roster contains Laila-Mae Taibossigai, Kahlan Judd, Anika Rhéaume, Ryann Morris, Makayla Paris, Julia D'Angelo, Juliana Theriault, Kayleigh Crew, Brooklyn Mininni, Quinn Houle, Brooklyn Bertrand and Addison Bronicheski.

The upcoming weekend will be a busy one for Sudbury girls hockey teams as the U18 AA Lady Wolves welcome the Barrie Sharks, Kitchener Lady Rangers and Soo Jr Greyhounds to town while the U13 A and U13 BB Lady Wolves team battle it out with representatives from North Halton, Almaguin and North Bay.