Sudbury teams win northern finals, now bound for provincials

A pair of Sudbury high school hockey teams punched their tickets to OFSAA competition on Tuesday, capturing gold at NOSSA playdowns in North Bay.

One was expected. The other, not so much.

Given that the NOSSA AAA/AAAA girls final pitted the St. Charles College Cardinals against the Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes, it was an absolute certainty that there would be local representation at the all-Ontario playdowns running from March 9 to 12 in Kanata.

After falling in the city finals in a third and deciding game, the Alouettes earned their revenge in North Bay, edging the Cards 3-2. Courtney Sauvé, Josée Scott and Ashley McKerral scored for Notre-Dame, while Tayler Murphy and Summer Butterfly answered for St. Charles.

The Alouettes completed their undefeated round-robin play earlier in the day with a 7-1 shellacking of the West Ferris Trojans, with Meagan McGaughey paving the way with a three-goal effort. France Bélanger added a pair, with solo markers from Jamie Ricci and Taylor McGaughey.

The Cardinals bounced back from an opening-game 4-0 loss to CND, beating both North Bay opponents.

The city champs blanked the St. Joseph Scollard Hall Bears 3-0 on goals from Sierra Crossthwaite, Butterfly and Murphy, earning their spot in the NOSSA final.

The Lockerby Vikings were beaten 4-1 by the Algonquin Barons in the A/AA final, also hosted in North Bay.

On the boys side of the equation, the St. Charles College Cardinals looked to be in tough, advancing to the gold-medal encounter Tuesday evening, but doing so on the heels of a lopsided 6-0 loss to the St. Basil's Saints, the same team they would meet in the final.

The rematch, however, proved to be a charm for the Cards, edging the Saints 5-4 as Cameron Quenville exploded with a three-goal outing to pace the St. Charles attack.

Andrew Dodge Prescott and Jacob Pitawanakwat also pulled the trigger for the winners, who, like Notre-Dame on the girls side, overcame a loss in the SDSSAA finals before moving on to win gold at the NOSSA level.

The Cardinals will also be away from March 9 to 12, with the AAA/AAAA OFSAA boys tournament taking place in St. Catharines. Ironically, St. Charles worked their way into the NOSSA championship encounter only by virtue of a 6-5 win by the Widdifield Wildcats over the West Ferris Trojans, with the game-winning goal coming with only 20 seconds to play.

Finally, in Sault Ste. Marie, the SDSSAA boys champions came up one goal short, on a tie-breaker, of earning a berth in the NOSSA A/AA final. The Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes dropped a 6-4 decision Tuesday to the St. Mary's Knights, finishing round-robin play with a record of 1-1-1.

That would leave them tied with the Central Algoma Huskies, who moved on to face St. Mary's after posting a goal differential that was one goal better than the Alouettes.

Nick Marion and Nick DeSantis scored two goals apiece for CND in their final game, while St. Mary's went on to win their fifth A/AA title in seven years with a 4-0 whitewash of Central Algoma.