PHOTOS: Petrah Joehl – Sudbury Light Event Photography
SUDBURY, Ont. – A Mason Chitaroni marker 79 seconds into overtime helped the Greater Sudbury Cubs hold off a determined French River Rapids side 3-2 Thursday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Greater Sudbury got the game’s first goal, 15 minutes into the proceedings, when Ben Harris snagged a clearing attempt and put a back pass up to Ryan Rubic who fired a shot past French River netminder Elijah Grant from the right circle.
The Rapids got that back prior to the first intermission however as David Parker did the work to force a play in close where he moved in and lifted in his initial NOJHL marker over the shoulder of the Cubs’ Noah Metivier to knot the affair at 1-1 after one.
In the middle frame, the home held a large territorial edge in play, only to be stymied by Grant.
The relentless Greater Sudbury pressure eventually succeeded late in the period when Cameron Walker put a pass in front from behind the goal line and saw Cameron Shanks muscle it by the French River goalkeeper at 18:45.
Moving to the third, the Rapids battled back to draw even once more just after a power play they were on had expired and saw Dominic Bzdyl fire a shot from up top that was neatly redirected by Daniil Grishachev to trickle through Metivier and slide into the net.
With no more scoring the rest of regulation, extra time was needed to decide a winner.
There, Marshall McCharles patiently regrouped, then sent a flip-pass up to Hudson Chitaroni who came in on the right wing and sent a feed over to his brother Mason, who snapped in the decider to partially spoil the big night in net for Grant.
With the victory, the Cubs return to the win column, moving to 13-4-0-0 while the efforts of the Rapids’ goaltender helped his club collect a point as their record went to 2-14-1-0.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
