PHOTOS: Rob Fera – Sudbury Light Event Photography
SUDBURY, Ont. – The surging Greater Sudbury Cubs racked up their ninth consecutive victory Tuesday in crushing the Timmins Rock 7-1 to conclude Day 1 of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Showcase at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Notching the night’s opening goal, Nolan Newton of the Cubs wheeled down the right wing and lifted a rising attempt from a sharp angle that sailed past Rock netminder Patrick Boivin, 14:52 into the match-up, to give him points in eight straight outings.
League-leading Greater Sudbury then took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission after Cameron Shanks ran a point streak to seven, when he whipped one through Boivin, with help from Newton and Oliver Smith, with the latter now having points in 15 straight contests, dating back to last season.
The Cubs then went up by three at 14:37 of the middle session, compliments of Chris Innes, who blasted in a draw won back to him from Marshall McCharles.
Special teams helped Timmins get on the board before the intermission as Kaeden McArthur jammed one in from close range, via the power play, off a Brant Romaniuk shot.
Busting it open in the third, Greater Sudbury erupted by striking four times to win going away.
An early McCharles effort helped extend the Cubs cushion a couple of minutes into the frame as he drove wide and banked a chance off a Rock defender and in.
Up a skater a few shifts later, they worked another draw back to Brock Houser moving in from the point, who buried his chance from between the circles.
Later, a Newton goal saw him intercept a pass and race in alone, where he made a deke to his left and deposited his NOJHL-leading 10th before Hudson Chitaroni wrapped up the one-sided result, by finishing off a McCharles feed.
The decision sees Greater Sudbury improve to a league-best 9-0-0-0 while in defeat, Timmins fell to 3-5-0-1.
In Day 2 at the Showcase Wednesday, the Rock will meet Blind River at 4:45 p.m. and the Cubs will face off against Powassan at 6:45 p.m.
