ESPANOLA, Ont. – After trailing for much of the contest, the Greater Sudbury Cubs roared back late with three tallies in the final minute and a half to pull out a 5-3 come from behind victory over the Espanola Paper Kings in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League game Friday at the Regional Recreation Complex.
Striking first, Espanola opened the scoring 12:34 into the match-up on a play that saw Jonathan Lush power his way down right wing then put a pass right in front to Cayden Kowal who quickly buried it by Cubs’ netminder Noah Metivier.
On the power play to begin the second period, the Paper Kings capitalized as Devin Mauro saw a bouncing puck find its way to him in the slot where he snapped it by Metivier at 1:29.
Greater Sudbury got one back deep into the frame off a draw that saw Samuel Assinewai smartly find Nolan Newton in the high slot who hesitated slightly to control the puck then sent a sharp wrist shot past Jake Marois in the Espanola net for his 11th of the campaign.
On a two-man advantage to begin the third, the Cubs drew level as Billy Biedermann spotted Oliver Smith going to the net where he steered in the pass from close range.
Up a skater themselves, Espanola went back in front thanks to Atley Gringorten converting by tipping in a point shot while situated in the high slot at 6:24.
However, the visitors stormed back to tie it once more as Christopher Innes sent a wrist shot towards the target from inside the blueline that was tipped in by Pierson Sobush for his team-leading 36th goal at 18:37.
Building on that, Greater Sudbury got the game-winner off the stick of Biedermann with 31 seconds remaining as he chipped a play past a defender then darted down the right side before snapping in the decider past Marois.
They then completed the rally with an empty netter courtesy of Cole Quevillon just before time expired as his long-range attempt from centre ice secured the triumph.
The results helped the Cubs move to 39-8-2-0 on the season while the Paper Kings slipped to 23-20-2-2.
