ESPANOLA, Ont. – Owen King was firing on all cylinders Friday as he scored four times with authority to propel the surging Greater Sudbury Cubs to an 8-3 win over the Espanola Paper Kings in a penalty-filled Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair at the Regional Recreation Complex.
Leading all NOJHL rookies in scoring, Espanola’s Owen Smith collected his 20th point of the campaign as he redirected in a Samuel Gravel attempt from just inside the Greater Sudbury blueline in beating Cubs’ starter Mateo Beites, four and a half minutes into the contest.
Pulling even at 8:05, King drew the visitors level when he stepped out of the box off a penalty and raced in alone where he wired a shot past Paper Kings’ netminder Logan Vale.
More from the Cubs deep into a man advantage saw Daks Klinkhammer extend a point streak to five when he deflected in a long-range wrister from Noah Kohan.
Klinkhammer has only been held pointless twice through 19 games this season.
More from King early in the middle frame, saw him opt to shoot from the right side on a two-on-one and send a sizzler past Vale.
That saw Espanola decide to make a goaltending change as Jack Helkie entered in relief.
While a shorthanded effort by Smith, generated off a turnover, brought the home side back to within one, the Cubs came right back and banged in two more to make it 5-2.
King completed his eighth career NOJHL hat trick, in just his 53rd league game, midway through the match-up as he whipped one upstairs on a five-on-three.
Nolan Newton right after that collected his team-leading 16th by stuffing in a Mason Walker cross-crease dish.
The Paper Kings moved back with a pair at 12:52 thanks to Carter Drigo converting off a nice set-up by Smith.
However, the Cubs took a 6-3 lead into the second intermission when Spencer Horgan worked his way between the circles and snapped a shot that found its way in.
More from King and the Greater Sudbury power play in the final frame, helped put it out of reach as he cranked in his fourth of the evening with a laser from the right circle.
Up a skater once more, Klinkhammer collected another by chopping in a rebound off a Newton chance up top to round out the scoring.
The victory for the rolling Cubs was their fifth in a row as they are now unbeaten in nine straight (8-0-1-0) and improved to 13-5-1-0 overall.
With the loss, the Paper Kings dropped to 12-7-0-1.
