Local girls push hockey to another level

In the realm of minor hockey, for both girls and boys, April is the month where dreams can come true. Conversely, given the reality that far more teams will lose their final game of the year than win it, April is also the month of heart-breaking defeats.

Taking in the OWHA girls’ hockey provincials over the weekend provided the opportunity to not only witness both ends of the spectrum, but also leave with yet another stark reminder of where sport actually fits in within the grand scheme of things.

Historically, the OWHA provincials have been quite kind to Sudbury. Never more so than in the spring of 2009 when the Lady Wolves contingent returned home with an astounding collection of seven medals, while sending a just 10 teams to the all-Ontario championships.

While the growth in girls’ hockey in general is noteworthy, the jump in the medal count was easily an aberration, given the previous trend toward one, or perhaps two, local teams reaching the podium in any given year.

The challenge that lies in working through fields of anywhere from 15 to 24 teams per division, all gunning for gold, was driven home over the weekend as just one local squad played on Sunday, with the bantam A ladies settling for fourth (more on that later).

The fact is that the gap between winning and losing at this level is razor thin — and any team needs a whole bunch of things to go right in order to weave their way through the three-day competition.

The surprise bronze-medallist one year ago, the midget AA Lady Wolves would drop all three round robin games this time around, but none by more than a two-goal deficit. There is little room for error.

The atom BB Lady Wolves — one of a handful of teams looked upon to have legitimate medal potential — bolted through pool play with three straight victories, outscoring their opponents 11-0 in the process.

But quarter-final play found the team battling the St. Catherines Chaos, and just 30 minutes later, the dream was over for the Sudbury girls, finishing on the wrong side of a 2-0 score.

To be sure, tears flowed freely at several GTA arenas last weekend. The peewee AA crew, who knocked off the Kingston Ice Wolves 1-0 in the championship game of the Leaside Tournament just a few weeks ago, found themselves looking at the flip side of the coin on Saturday.

The Sudbury peewees dropped a 1-0 decision in double overtime, a game that could have easily gone either way. Still, I can’t help but think that a tip of the hat is in order for coach Steve Blinn and staff, who passed up the far easier route of classifying themselves as an A team in favour of greater competition.

In other quarter-final drama, the peewee BB Lady Wolves dropped a 3-2 decision to the Georgina Golden Hawks, while the Woodstock Wildcats trimmed Sudbury 1-0 in peewee B play.

Rounding out the local contingent, the bantam B girls lost out on a tie-breaker after posting a record of 1-1-1 in preliminary round play, while the novices were blanked 2-0 by Guelph, also one game shy of playing Sunday.

Yes, the OWHA provincials can easily provide memories for a lifetime. In atom C quarter-final play Saturday evening, the Gloucester-Cumberland Stars and Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds battled through an astounding 10 periods of overtime hockey before the Stars scored the game’s only goal in period number 14.

Now back to the Sudbury bantam A squad, as promised. Just 53 seconds away from elimination in round robin play, the Lady Wolves scored the game-winner versus Whitby to move on with a 2-1 win. A 1-0 shutout of the West Northumberland Wild advanced coach Steve Boyd and company to Sunday action, where the girls fell victim to the flipside of this coin. Sudbury and Sarnia were scoreless through five periods of hockey before the Lady Sting nabbed a berth in the gold-medal game, eventually claiming top spot with a 1-0 win over Sault Ste. Marie.

Struggling to regain their emotional energy against Stratford, the Sudbury girls pulled even at one with less than three minutes remaining, only to drop a 2-1 decision after surrendering a penalty shot goal with just 22 seconds remaining.

There was no lack of tears flowing in the Sudbury dressing room following the last-minute loss. But come this time next year, the majority of these girls will get a chance to do it all over again.

Randy Pascal is the voice of Eastlink Sports and the founder of Sudbury Sports.com.