The Sudbury Lady Wolves are the only unbeaten team in the 2019 Esso Cup, as the hometown crew continues its quest to win national gold in midget girls hockey.
Canada's top midget girls teams are in Greater Sudbury this week to battle it out for hockey supremacy.
Tuesday night's match between the Lady Wolves and the Stoney Creek Sabres was a nailbiter of a game that saw heavy — and largely unsuccessful — offence for much of the game in what became a battle of the goalies.
The Lady Wolves maintained their 2019 Esso Cup unbeaten streak by claiming a 2-1 victory last night.
All of the scoring took place in the first period. In fact, what turned out to the winning goal was scored by the Lady Wolves' Lauren Hancock near the end of the first.
Described as a frenzied opening period, there were 30 shots fired in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Sudbury drew first blood when Katie Chomiak backhanded a rebound passed Sabres' goalie Megan Warrener at just under the five-minute mark.
Minutes later, Stoney Creek's Alyssa Kawa ripped one under the crossbar and passed Mireille Kingsley to tie the game at 1-1. But 30 seconds later Hancock sent a rocket from the lip of the crease Warrener and scored what turned out to be the winning goal.
The second period saw Kingsley and Warrener squaring off, combining to make 17 stops for a scoreless period.
The Sabres tried to up their offence in the third, but the Lady Wolves were having none of it. Sudbury's strong forechecking and decisive play in the neutral zone continued into the third period, and the Sabres didn't even get a shot on net for the first 10 minutes of the final frame.
As the period wound down, Stoney Creek did manage to get some shots on net, but Kingsley was a wall between the pipes.
The Lady Wolves are known as an offensive powerhouse of a team, but Tuesday's game saw the team showing that they have defensive chops as well.
Whereas Warrener was called on to make 40 stops for Stoney Creek, Kingsley only faced 23 shots over the course of the game.
The win leaves Sudbury as the only unbeaten team in the field, while Stoney Creek drops to 1-2.
The Lady Wolves look to keep their unblemished record intact tonight when they face the Saskatoon Stars at 7 p.m. at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
