Jenna Jacobson took full advantage of the call-up, suiting up as an affiliated player with the Sudbury Peewee "BB" Lady Wolves Monday night in Coniston.
Jacobson snapped a 2-2 tie four minutes into the third period, propelling the Lady Wolves past the Sudbury Major Atom "AA" Wolves 3-2. Scoring came fast and furious in the latter stages of the first period, as the girls bolted to a 2-0 with markers just eight seconds apart.
Julia Hayes buried a centering pass from Sydney Burton and linemate Sierra Boyuk wasted little time in doubling the Lady Wolves advantage, moments later, breaking in right off the face-off.
The boys were able to get one back before the end of the frame, as Grant Booth converted a feed from Atom Thususka. Almost a full period later, the Wolves pulled even on the power play, as Carter Danyluk walked out, uncontested, from the corner, and made no mistake in beating Lady Wolves' netminder Farrah Farstad in tight.
The Jacobson tally proved to be the only scoring in the third, as Farstad finished the contest with 19 saves, while Mackinly Sobush registered 18 stops of his own at the other end of the rink.
One of three returning players to an OWHA gold medal winning Peewee "BB" crew from one year ago, Hayes doesn't tend to differentiate a whole lot between her regular season encounters with the boys, and her tournament competition against other girls teams in her bracket.
"For me, it's just hockey," she said. "It doesn't matter if they're boys or girls, you just go out there and play."
In what proved to be a very evenly-matched showdown, the Lady Wolves pulled one out of the fire, much to the delight of their team captain.
"I find that we had our heads up and had some good passing," said Hayes. "Maybe we could keep our feet moving and probably communicate a little more."
A long-time defender, the 12 year-old made the move up front, looking to round out her game any way that she can.
"I do whatever the coaches tell me to do," she stated. "If they tell me to keep my head up on the wall, I'll do my best to do that. Even on the bench, I would always watch my teammates and see how they would do things."
With no other Peewee "BB" girls team in the region, the Sudbury crew will advance with an automatic berth into provincials in April.
More importantly, they will do so armed with no less than nine gold medal winners from April of 2016, players who were members of either the 2015-2016 Peewee "BB" Lady Wolves team, or the equally successful Atom "A" contingent.
