Atom Lady Wolves claw through Whitby tournament

By the end of the current hockey season, the Sudbury Atom A Lady Wolves will be old pros at dealing with the drama of championship finals.

Reaching the gold-medal game of tournament play for the fourth time this year, the Sudbury Atoms battled through their fourth straight final decided by just one goal, emerging on the winning end for the third time recently in Whitby.

The Lady Wolves took advantage of a sudden-death shootout format as Hanna Smith buried the game-winning tally, with Mireille Kingsley making the big stop at the opposite end of the rink to push Sudbury past the Whitby Wolves 2-1.

Deseray Zazulak scored earlier in the game for the locals, a team which posted a record of 2-0-1 in round-robin play, securing their spot in the championship encounter.

Sudbury opened play with a tight 2-1 victory over the Aurora Panthers as Madisyn Papineau and Valerie Honse found the back of the net for head coach Rob Papineau and company.

The Lady Wolves met their namesakes for the first time in Game 2, finishing in a 1-1 tie with Whitby as Taylor Scott accounted for the one and only Sudbury goal.

The team did manage to build up some momentum heading into the final with a 5-0 thumping of the London Devilettes as Papineau and Scott were joined on the scoresheet by Hailey Sprack, Lauren Fearn and Danielle Pitre, with Kingsley recording the shutout.

Earlier this year, the Atom A Lady Wolves captured gold in Oakville (1-0 over St Catherines) and Barrie (1-0 over North Bay), settling for silver in Etobicoke (1-0 loss to Pittsburgh).

The 2012-2013 edition of the Sudbury Atom A Lady Wolves features a lineup of Mireille Kingsley, Lauren Fearn, Danielle Pitre, Hailey Sprack, Paige Savard, Bradie Roy, Jaiden Duncan, Deseray Zazulak, Jenna Lachance, Chloe Leduc, Elise Belanger, Taylor Scott, Hanna Smith, Kelsey Dunn, Madisyn Papineau and Valerie Honse.