COCHRANE, Ont. – Breaking a scoreless game with a pair of late second period goals helped send the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League-leading Greater Sudbury Cubs on their way to an eventual 3-0 triumph over the Conrane Crunch Saturday at Tim Horton Event Centre.
Action in the opening 20 minutes saw front-running Greater Sudbury hold a wide-margin in shots on goal, but they could not solve Cochrane netminder Marcus Ouellet.
It was much the same in the second stanza until the latter stages of the session when the persistent Cubs’ pressure finally paid off at 16:22 as on an odd-man rush, Nicholas Toffoli was allowed to come right in on Ouellet and manage to get one past him just prior to colliding with the goalkeeper.
The guests then added another before the intermission with Samuel Assinewai scoring off a end-to-end rush that saw him soar down the right wing and wire a shot that the Cochrane keeper could only get a piece of before it ended up in the back of the net.
In the third, Greater Sudbury picked up some insurance nearly five minutes into the period as Kyloe Ellis sent a bank-pass up off the boards that sent Pierson Sobush in on a partial break where he drove hard to the net and neatly tucked in a backhander through the legs of Ouellet for his 11th goal of the season.
Cubs’ goalkeeper Nathanial Boyes and his defensive corps did the rest to post the shutout and helping their side run a streak to 12-0-1-0 in their past 13 outings as well as move to 16-2-2-0 overall.