Photos: Sudbury Light Event Photography
SUDBURY, Ont. – A well-balanced attack saw the Greater Sudbury Cubs get goals from six different skaters as they went on to defeat the Cochrane Crunch 6-1 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Thursday at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Greater Sudbury got going offensively near the four-minute mark of the first frame as Mathieu Morin scored for a 10th time on the season when he deftly deflected a Nicholas Toffoli shot that flew over the blocker and shoulder of Cochrane goaltender Michael Nickolau.
The Cubs then took a 2-0 lead prior to the first intermission thanks to Ben Harris, who took a Morin feed and whipped a shot from the right circle that flew into the back of the net at 8:13.
Striking twice quickly to begin the second stanza, the hosts made it 4-0 before the period was a minute and a half old.
Seth Coulter provided the first one off a coast-to-coast rush up the ice as he flew down the right side and snapped an attempt that clipped off the stick of a Crunch defenceman and change direction enough to send it up over Nickolau at the 29-second mark.
Adding to that on the next shift, Pierson Sobush skated his way into the Cochrane zone and proceeded to pick the right hand corner with a sharp wrister from the high slot for his 21st tally on the year.
Up a skater in the third, Greater Sudbury clicked via the man advantage at 6:40 off some crisp puck movement that saw Billy Biedermann fire a cross-ice pass over to Cameron Walker, who cranked in a one-timer, for his 10th of the campaign.
Cochrane did get on the board midway through the final frame, as Ethan Ingram also scored his 10th by finishing off a Joshua Mizue set-up just after he was taken down on the play by whipping one in that beat Cubs’ goaltender Joel Rainville from between the hash marks.
Cameron Shanks then capped off the victory for Greater Sudbury with 8:10 to go as his 13th came by taking a Walker pass then promptly snapping one past a diving Crunch netminder.
The decision put the Cubs three points up on the Blind River Beavers in the race for third spot in the NOJHL West Division standings.