Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – A three-assist night by Spencer Horgan put him in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League record book Thursday as part of a lopsided 9-0 victory by the Greater Sudbury Cubs over the French River Rapids at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Horgan’s efforts saw him establish a new league mark for career points by a defenceman with 212.
Greater Sudbury wasted little time in taking control of the contest by scoring twice before it was five minutes in.
Their initial tally saw Owen King steer in a sharp cross-ice pass from Caden Dubreuil at 1:14.
The Cubs added another in transition as Horgan and Alex Valade combined from the back-end to send Nolan Newton ahead where he danced around a defender, then made a another nice move, prior to lifting in his league-leading 36th goal, by going top shelf on Rapids’ starter Matis Bureau-Morel.
With the marker, Newton extended a point streak to 14 games, while with the assist, Valade is now on a 11-game heater.
King then collected another late in the frame as he took a dish from Kaedyn Long then wheeled through the slot prior to ripping a shot through Bureau-Morel at 17:41.
Adding to their cushion early in the middle stanza, Greater Sudbury’s Noah Kohan won a draw back to Cole Wreggit, who lifted an attempt from the point that clipped off a French River player and elevated into the top of the net.
A fifth on the evening saw Mason Walker supply his 25th tally of the campaign as he finished off a down-low feed from Horgan.
With that helper, Horgan tied the NOJHL points record for a defenceman.
He then set the new league mark in that department, surpassing the 211 Noel Caya compiled with the Rayside-Balfour Canadians from 1981-86, by assisting on a Kohan man advantage marker at 8:40 for point No. 212.
Continuing the onslaught, Mateo Signoretti picked one up at even strength as he wired one upstairs from between the circles.
Cubs’ captain Daks Klinkhammer then struck shorthanded later in the session as he went end-to-end and finished off a second chance on Ethan Madden, who had entered in relief for the Rapids.
Finishing it off in the third, Matteo Signoretti stuffed in a loose puck laying in the crease to cap off the scoring.
No lost in the triumph was the shutout goaltending of Matthew Vahramian who won his ninth start in a row and saw him improve to 12-0-0-1 in his past 13 appearances for the league-leading Cubs.
