Add the Sudbury U13 AA Lady Wolves to the list of local girls hockey teams making some noise on a provincial scale.
The talented crew recently returned from the Mississauga Hurricanes AA Winter Showcase with a record of 4-1-0, upending the #2 ranked team in the province and taking #3 to overtime before being eliminated in the Sunday semi-finals.
The U13 AA girls could not have asked for a much better start to the tournament, blitzing the Etobicoke Dolphins 7-2 as Taylor Poirier recorded a hat trick, joined on the scoresheet by Madden Poirier, Kaitlyn Zarifa, Janelle Labrosse and Rocklyn Paquette.
Home ice advantage meant little as Sudbury blanked the host Mississauga Hurricanes 4-0 in game two, with netminder Taylor Coskery earning the shutout as Madden Poirier, Olive Simon, Rocklyn Paquette and Janelle Labrosse all hit the mark.
The highlight for the U13 AA Lady Wolves came in their next encounter as the northern reps trimmed the London Devilettes (#2 in Ontario) by a final score of 2-1, with Janelle Labrosse and Taylor Poirier potting one goal each for the winners.
Riding high, the team then posted a 3-0 whitewashing of the Durham West Lightning as (3-0) as Kaitlyn Zarifa, Taylor Poirier and Rocklyn Paquette provided the offense and Gabi Neale was rock solid at the other end of the rink.
A Sunday morning semi-final versus the Burlington Barracudas (#3 in province) was a classic as Zoey Rietkoetter scored for Sudbury, helping to force the contest to overtime before the Lady Wolves ultimately succumbed by a score of 2-1.
Their performance was enough to lift the Lady Wolves into the #13 slot (My Hockey Rankings) as the Sudbury squad showcased their ability to register tight wins against elite teams, something that does not happen without everyone on board pulling their weight.
“I think we played amazing,” summarized defenseman Vivienne Michelutti, a stay at home blueliner, by her own account. “We kept dumping the puck in and chasing it.”
“Nobody was not going in that game,” Michelutti stressed while chatting of the big win over London.
Making the leap to "AA" hockey for the very first time, the 12 year-old daughter of Telus Cup championship coach Peter Michelutti Jr has displayed continual improvement in her game, becoming far more acclimatized after a few years at the "BB" level.
"I think I got better in my skating, by a lot," said Michelutti. "I still need to work on it because I am not the fastest player. And my shot ... when I was in U11, I wasn't hardly able to shoot at all, just on the ice."
"But now, it's better - and I'm working on my slapshot."
As her father well knows, the pace of the shot does not help a whole lot if the puck simply does not make it through - something he has imparted apparently on his talkative daughter.
"When I am out near the top of the blueline, if the player is coming at me, I normally try and look for our winger on the side because I can pass to her. But if it's open, I try and do a nice shot, maybe this much off the ice (displaying 2-3 inches with her fingers)."
Partnered quite often with the veteran presence of Olive Simon, Michelutti is simply thankful for the chance to play with this group of teammates.
"At tryouts, I was so nervous," she said. "I didn't know if I was going to make it or not because there was a bunch of other good defensemen - and I have never even been on an "A" team. I am really excited about this year, with great opportunities, even if some of the players are better than me."
Madden Poirier was likely a little more at ease at tryouts. More often than not on a line with older sister Taylor (by nine minutes), Madden and her twin played on the top Lady Wolves U13 team last year, a beneficiary of the incredible chemistry the two have developed as forward linemates.
"When I get the puck off the wall, she knows I am going to one-touch a pass to her," said Madden. "We've been doing it for so long, she's kind of just used to it. We're really good at finding each other. It's what twins do, finding each other no matter where we are."
That said, there is a need to fill out the trio with a complimentary talent and while that role has been switched around at times, the newest addition on the wing comes in the form of North Bay native and first year Lady Wolf Kaitlyn Zarifa.
"She is really fast, so that speed really helps us get the puck in their zone and get shots on net," said Poirier, who credited part of the weekend success to an overall team mindset that cannot help but contribute to success.
“I just feel that we were really positive on the bench, no matter what the score was,” added Madden Poirier. “And we were sharing the puck a lot.”
Rounding out this roster are Chloe Labrosse, Madison Mercer, Olive Simon, Tessa Marshall, Avery Larche, Brielle Chamberland, Jill Ferguson and Aili Bouchard.
