With play at the 2024 OWHA (Ontario Women’s Hockey Association) Provincial Championships set to kickoff Thursday afternoon, hope still springs eternal for all 12 Sudbury Lady Wolves teams who are part of the contingent of hundreds of entries from all corners of the province taking part.
“It’s the biggest tournament in Ontario for all females of all ages, from nine to 22 – and older,” said U15 AA defenceman Alexa Labrecque, a grade nine student at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School who crossed over to girls hockey just two years ago and quickly realized the importance of this year-end event.
“If you win it, you’re the best team in Ontario,” continued Labrecque. “It’s the thing that all teams lead up to; it’s their goal from the start of the season.”
Based on the 2023-2024 season that played out, the U15 AA Lady Wolves might not top the local odds makers’ chart to secure one of the small handful of medals that Sudbury teams historically garner over the course of this hectic weekend – but they are in that mix of teams that, if all goes well, could very well still be playing come Sunday (when most divisions are into semi-final action).
“I think our team has gotten progressively better the whole year,” said Labrecque. “We have a really good group on defense and our goaltending is really strong. We’re really good at getting to rebounds, so we have to focus on crashing the net and getting shots on net when we can.”
It’s a strategy that is not substantially dissimilar to the one that the Sudbury U18 AA Lady Wolves are likely to employ. Though still only 15 years old, blueliner Adrielle Charette knows that her offensive acumen is one of the main reasons she cracked the older roster, a key when it comes to a tournament where just one goal so often makes the difference.
“I need to be creating plays in the offensive zone with passes and getting pucks to the net,” said the grade nine freshman at Collège Notre-Dame. “Our players are really good at screening the goalies and getting rebounds.”
Making the jump to U18 hockey one year early, Charette has parlayed a very solid season into an opportunity to suit up with the U22 Barrie Sharks come the 2024-2025 campaign – an opportunity created in part by the experience she received the past eight months.
“The intensity is way higher and I had to learn to read the plays much faster that I would be doing in U15,” she explained. “I need to be even more offensive – and playing centre last year definitely.”
While this will likely be the final appearance at provincials as a member of the Lady Wolves for Charette (same holds true for Labrecque, heading off to join the U22 Toronto Aeros in the fall), that feeling of one last crack at the crown is a little different for teammate Danika Gray.
A grade 12 student at Bishop Carter, Gray played her first two years of U18 hockey with the “A” Lady Wolves, hoping to close out her minor hockey career in style this weekend. “With it being my last year, I think it’s really special,” noted the forward who will be joining the newly christened ACHA women’s hockey program (Div I) at Eastern Michigan University in September.
“I think we have a really good chance to make it, to move on,” added Gray. “My mentality is that it’s a positive that it’s my last year because I want to push really hard to get that trophy, to try and finally win it.”
Over the years, the U18 AA crew have enjoyed as much success as any in terms of the Lady Wolves delegation of squads, capturing OWHA gold in 2018-2019, 2014-2015, 2013-2014 and 2007-2008. And while this year’s group is not a prohibitive favourite, they have demonstrated the ability to go toe to toe with a number of the top teams – in part due to a fairly balanced attack.
After finishing second in the high-school scoring parade with 39 points in 18 games, Gray is looking to carry some of that over to the more competitive U18 AA division. “In high school, it is a little slower,” she suggested. “To be able to transfer that to Lady Wolves, for me, it’s about making fast passes to get the goalie moving and always having my head up.”
The Sudbury U13 AA Lady Wolves are one of a very small number of local teams with a super large target on their backs, having just captured the OWHL league title, beating the Burlington Barracudas last weekend in a shootout.
“We’ve been focusing a lot in practice about keeping the intensity high,” noted head coach Scott Rienguette. “The more we win, the more teams want to beat us, so we have to get up for every game, every period.”
Blessed with some of the province’s top end offensive talent in this age group – Ella Sabourin, Ally Hebert and Davie Dale offer a forward line that few teams can match – along with a top-five goaltending tandem, the U13 AA girls have the building blocks for success.
Thankfully, the remainder of the roster is what helps put them over the top.
“It’s been an amazing run and all 17 girls have contributed,” noted Rienguette. “Our defense has come a long way. They really have bought in, believing in themselves, and trusting the process, stepping up and closing the gap and making a good first pass.”
But as so many have witnessed before, all the success in the world in regular season play means precious little when one is dealing with shortened periods and the challenge that is scoring in girls hockey.
“We’ve got to come to play,” said Rienguette. “If we get ahead of ourselves and think that we are just going to win, we’re going to be in trouble. But this is the first team I have coached in 20 years where we are down as often as we are up going to the third – and we still come away with a win.”
Joining the above trio in the GTA this weekend with be the following Lady Wolves’ teams: U18A, U18BB, Senior A, U15A, U15BB, U13BB, U11AA, U11B and U9B (D-E-F).
