PHOTOS: Petrah Joehl – Sudbury Light Event Photography
SUDBURY, Ont. – A two-goal, one assist, first period for Greater Sudbury Cubs stalwart forward Nolan Newton helped send his side on their way to a convincing 7-1 victory over the Espanola Paper Kings Thursday night in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
An early power play saw Newton supply his initial tally of the contest after an Oliver Smith pass to the net saw it redirect off his skate and past Espanola netminder Jake Marois.
Newton then did a nice dash around in the Paper Kings zone before saucering a feed to Brock Houser, who went through the left circle and zipped a shot into the back of the net.
He then notched his second of the frame, and NOJHL-leading 14th of the season, after Smith powered his way along the left side boards that generated a two-on-one and resulted in a crisp cross-ice feed across that was promptly snapped in to the bottom right corner at 19:05.
A fourth on the evening saw Greater Sudbury break out of their own zone, with Benjamin Lacroix cruising down the right wing where he set-up Christopher Innes moving into the slot where he whipped a shot upstairs over the glove of Marois at 8:22 of the second stanza.
Remaining 4-0 for the hosts into the third period, Newton hit a hat trick by wheeling into the Espanola end on a man advantage that saw him go hard to the net and fire one low blocker side to give him his league-best 15 goals on the season.
The Paper Kings came back to dash the shutout bid of Cubs’ goalkeeper Noah Metivier at 9:17, while on the man advantage, that saw Spencer Horgan wait, then pump a shot from the point, that was eventually stuffed in by Graydon Guthrie parked in front.
Answering right back though, Samuel Assinewai countered moments later for Greater Sudbury as with one hand on his stick, he jammed in a loose puck laying on the goal line off a scramble in close.
Finishing off the result, a third extra-man marker for the Cubs saw Innes tee-up Cameron Walker for a one-time blast with three minutes to go in rounding out the scoring in a spirited final frame.
With the outcome, Greater Sudbury raises their record to 11-1-0-0 while Espanola falls to 7-3-0-1.
The clubs won’t have to wait long to renew acquaintances as they meet again Saturday to cap-off a home-and-home in a 7:30 p.m. start at the Regional Recreation Complex and on FLOHockey.tv.
