Photo: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – The Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) playoffs commence Thursday as the Greater Sudbury Cubs host the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners in Game 1 of their best-of-seven quarter-final at T.M. Davies Community Centre & Arena in Lively at 7 p.m.
Greater Sudbury will be a prohibitive favourite in the best-of-seven affair as the No. 1 seeded Cubs finished 42 points clear of the No. 8 Gold Miners in the NOJHL’s regular season standings.
Here’s a look at the two teams heading into the series.
SEASON RECORDS
Cubs: 39-8-3-2 (1st overall)
Gold Miners: 17-28-0-7 (8th overall)
HEAD COACHES
Cubs: Darryl Moxam
Gold Miners: Dave Dube (Assistant Coach)
HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Cubs held the edge in their season-set, winning all four games by a combined goal count of 29 to 8.
One of those match-ups did go to overtime however, before Greater Sudbury eventually prevailed.
RESULTS
Nov. 22: @ Kirkland Lake (Cubs 9, Gold Miners 3)
Dec. 11: @ Sudbury (Cubs 3, Gold Miners 2 – OT)
Jan. 16: @ Kirkland Lake (Cubs 7, Gold Miners 1)
Jan. 22: @ Sudbury (Cubs 10, Gold Miners 2)
SERIES SCHEDULE
No. 1 Greater Sudbury Cubs vs. No. 8 Kirkland Lake Gold Miners
Best-of-seven series
Game 1: Thursday, March 19 @ Sudbury 7 p.m. (T.M. Davies Arena)
Game 2: Friday, March 20 @ Sudbury 7 p.m. (T.M. Davies Arena)
Game 3: Monday, March 23 @ Kirkland Lake 7 p.m. (Joe Mavrinac Community Complex)
Game 4: Tuesday, March 24 @ Kirkland Lake 7 p.m. (Joe Mavrinac Community Complex)
Game 5*: Thursday, March 26 @ Sudbury 7 p.m. (T.M. Davies Arena)
Game 6*: Saturday, March 28 @ Kirkland Lake 7 p.m. (Joe Mavrinac Community Complex)
Game 7*: Tuesday, March 31 @ Sudbury (T.M. Davies Arena)
*-if necessary
THE CUBS: Greater Sudbury led the NOJHL in goals scored during the 2025-26 campaign with 298 and allowed the fewest-against, giving up just 124. … They also placed four players in the Top 10 in league scoring and five in the Top 15. … Tabbed seventh nationally in the final CJHL Rankings – Fuelled by Gatorade, the Cubs finished first in the NOJHL standings on 83 points with a league-best record of 39-8-3-2. … They also led the way playing on home ice going 21-3-1-1 and were also tops on the road, sporting a 18-5-2-1 mark. … They went 7-2-1-0 down the stretch. … Clicking at an impressive 38.5% clip on the power play, they led the way in that department. … Greater Sudbury was second overall on the penalty kill at 83.3%. … The Cubs were the runaway leader in man advantage markers with 97 and were also first in shorthanded tallies with 19. … When scoring first, the team went 27-5-1. … Having the lead after the first period saw them go 30-2-1-0 and they were even better through 40 minutes at 34-2-0-0.
FORWARDS: Despite missing the final three game due to injury, highly touted centre Nolan Newton still led the team in scoring on the campaign with 91 points in 45 outings, including picking up 37 tallies, which were the third-most in the league. … Newton was second overall in NOJHL offensive numbers. … Close behind him was crafty winger Mason Walker. … He totalled career single-season bests in goals (33); assists (55) and points (88) in finishing third in league scoring. … Goal-scoring machine Owen King pumped in 44 markers for the Cubs, to finish second overall among all league skaters, and helped set-up 30 others for 74 points. … King led the league in power play tallies with 21, while Walker sat second at 15. … Walker’s eight game-winners shared the NOJHL lead in that department, with Newton holding down sixth in the category with six of his own. … That trio combined for 119 power play points. … Greater Sudbury captain Daks Klinkhammer was well over a point-per-game man with 65 in 45 outings. … Eidan Macartney’s seven shorthanded points tied him for top spot in the league.
DEFENCE: Record-setting defenceman Spencer Horgan had another tremendous year on the back end for the Cubs. … He led all NOJHL blueliners in scoring with 72 points, which also placed him 10th overall among all league skaters. … Horgan notched 19 markers, including 10 via the man advantage, and assisted on 53 others. … He is the all-time leading point getter in the NOJHL by a defenceman with 228. … Second-year D-man Alex Valade was next in numbers from the blueline as he established personal single-season bests in goals (10); assists (29) & points (39) to place him seventh in the NOJHL by defencemen. … Four of his tallies came on the power play. … Among the other 20-plus point men by the Cubs D were Tyson Rismond (28); Jacob Signoretti (25); Nate Laarus (23) and Kyle Navarro (23).
GOALTENDERS: Veteran Cubs’ netminder Matthew Vahramian tied for the NOJHL-lead in goals-against average at 2.14 while sporting a 19-6-1-0 overall record. … His win total was the second highest in the league and he sat sixth in save percentage at .915, with two shutouts. … Since joining Greater Sudbury in early December, Iain Wintle went unbeaten in regulation time, going 9-0-1-2 in 14 overall appearances. … He also had a 2.28 GAA along with a save mark of .910 and posted a pair of shutouts.
THE GOLD MINERS: Kirkland Lake made a late charge in the campaign to secure a playoff spot. … This marks the first time they will appear in a best-of-season postseason series since back in 2019. … The club went 7-5-0-2 down the stretch to earn their place in a quest for a NOJHL title. … The Gold Miners finished eighth in the league in goals scored with 147. … They were ninth in goals allowed with 226. … With a line-up that featured 15 rookies on their roster, Kirkland Lake ended up eighth overall in the standings at 17-28-0-7 overall. … They went 10-14-0-2 on home ice at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex and 7-14-0-5 on the road. … The club sat 11th in the league on the power play at 12.2%. … On the penalty kill, the Gold Miners ended up sixth overall at a respectable 76.3% clip. … They notched 29-man advantage efforts in 234 opportunities and were third in the NOJHL in shorthanded tallies, with 19. Their 270 times down a skater was the second highest total in the league. … When leading after the first period, the Miners were 3-3-1-0 and were a solid 9-1-1-0 after 40 minutes. … Kirkland Lake played in a NOJHL-high 11 overtime contests, going 4-7.
FORWARDS: Cayden Kowal topped the team in scoring with 45 points in just 35 games played. … Rookie Vaive Hickey was next on the squad with 37 points. … Hickey finished 10th in NOJHL rookie scoring. … Nathan Harper led Kirkland Lake in goals as he notched 20. … He led the way in game-winners with four, while Harper’s three shorthanded markers were second most in the league by a rookie and was in the same spot in man-down points with six. … After joining the Gold Miners in January, Owen Kelly collected 16 points in 14 outings and had at least one point in each of his last eight contests.
DEFENCE: First-year rearguard Daniel Rusu led Kirkland Lake offensively from the back end with 27 points, to place him fourth overall on the team. … Two of Rusu’s six tallies were game-winning efforts. … Rookie Fynn Manttari was next with 24 points. … With a trio of game-winning goals, Manttari shared the most by all NOJHL blueliners. … Tysen Anderson supplied the most markers by a Gold Miners’ defenceman with nine and contributed 23 points in total. Anderson also tied for the league lead in shorthanded goals by a defenceman with two. … Ryland Harvey (12) and Isaiah Allen (11) and chipped in with 10-plus points.
GOALTENDERS: Seeing the bulk of the workload, Glen McInnes had the fourth-highest number of minutes played in the league this season at 1,809. … His efforts saw him supply a record of 12-15-4-0. … His goals-against average was 3.61 and had a .903 save percentage. … Rookie goaltender Brian Rathwell saw nearly 1,000 minutes of playing time. … Nine of his appearances saw him make 30, or more, saves. … He also earned a recent call-up to the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, who chose him in the sixth round of the 2025 OHL Priority Selection. … Affiliate netminder Logan Coates went 3-0 with a 2.55 GAA and .920 save mark.
UP NEXT: The series winner will move on to compete in the NOJHL’s semifinals.
BROADCASTERS
Cubs: Thomas Mercier
Gold Miners: Mike Jones & Braden Gasper
WHERE TO WATCH: All NOJHL playoff games are streamed live online via its official broadcast partner, at FLOHockey.tv.
