Lady Wolves edge Ice Boltz to take lead in playdowns

A goal by Joelle Dubois in the second period was enough to lead the Sudbury Peewee A Lady Wolves over the North Bay Ice Boltz in Game 1 of their Ontario Women's Hockey Association provincial playdown series Feb. 9 in Sudbury.

Dubois won the opening faceoff and, three nifty dekes later, scored the only goal of the game with just eight seconds ticked off the clock.

With every previous matchup between the northern rivals decided by just one goal, few were surprised when the Lady Wolves were able to hold on for the win.

The unassisted effort would be sufficient, in part, due to the goaltending of Sudbury netminder Veronique Hamelin. While the young puckstopper has a rather unorthodox style, Hamelin accomplished what every good netminder sets out to do: keep the puck out of the net.

Relying heavily on her solid glove hand, Hamelin was tested in the third when the Ice Boltz came alive, in part because of Sudbury penalties.

Up until that point, the Lady Wolves enjoyed the better scoring chances. Not long after potting the eventual game-winner, Dubois set up Isabella Becker with a shot that went just wide. And Dubois received a lovely pass from Danika Godin, but rang it off the post.

The game went pretty much as expected for Sudbury head coach Jay Duncan.

"Our main focus is defence first," said Duncan. "We have to be strong in our own end, work as a team, and the goals will take care of themselves. We tend to get scoring from everybody, but this was a tight-checking game, so they (North Bay) took a lot of what we normally do away."

Duncan and company began the season in the BB grouping, although the rookie coach admits that was largely due to his lack of knowledge of his team, and how well they could compete province wide.

"Once we realized, we moved (to Peewee A) right away," said Duncan. "We've played five tournaments now, winning three and losing in overtime in the others. So I guess we are an A team."

Game 2 in the four-point series is set for Feb 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Verner Arena, with Game 3 (if necessary) scheduled for March 2 at Countryside Arena.