PHOTOS: Caleigh Fera – Sudbury Light Event Photography
SUDBURY, Ont. – A four-goal surge, seven and a half minutes apart in the third period, broke open a close contest and saw the Greater Sudbury Cubs skate to a 6-3 triumph over the Blind River Beavers Thursday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Blind River was quick to strike in the match-up after Jakob Kovacs forced a turnover in the Greater Sudbury end and after wheeling around the net, fed it back to the point where Dylan Rousselle cruised in and blasted a shot that got by Cubs’ starter Noah Metivier for his first NOJHL goal, 2:26 in.
The Cubs came back to equalize later in the period off some diligent work from Ryan Rubic who worked a play in front where Oliver Smith battled to stuff in his 17th tally of the season past netminder Noah Tegelaar, as well as run a point streak to six in succession.
Moving to the middle frame, the home side took the lead midway through, right off a draw that got the puck to an open Samuel Assinewai between the circles where he quickly whipped it past Tegelaar.
Coming back to tie it later in the period, Blind River came in on an odd-man rush and saw Kovacs go in and lift a backhand over a sprawling Metivier.
Not done there, the Beavers responded once more and added another just 30 seconds later, with Evan Fraccaro converting from the left of the crease.
Moving to the final frame, Smith supplied his second of the night, as he was sent in alone off a long stretch pass from Marshall McCharles and neatly picked the bottom left corner at 5:10.
The hosts then clicked again a couple of shifts later, while on the power play, when Josh Kavanagh worked a give-and-go with Mason Chitaroni before doing a toe drag at the top of the circles and firing a shot through a maze to put Greater Sudbury back in front.
Striking again near the midway point of the period, the Cubs struck shorthanded when Noah Kohan broke in as a Blind River defender lost an edge and fell, which allowed to go in uncontested on Tegelaar and rip a shot over his glove to make it 5-3.
Hudson Chitaroni then completed the outburst at 12:42 as he finished off a solid effort by Assinewai, who put a sharp feed across that was swept in to the open side to cap off the night’s scoring.
The victory for league-leading Greater Sudbury raised their record to 18-5-0-0, while with the loss, Blind River dropped to 14-8-0-0.
