Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – Buoyed by a five-point night from Lucas Signoretti, and six power play markers from his Greater Sudbury Cubs teammates, they went on to crown the Espanola Paper Kings 11-1 Thursday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Gerry McCrory Countryside Complex.
Fresh off collecting his 200th NOJHL point in his last outing, Greater Sudbury’s Signoretti opened the scoring just over five minutes into the match-up.
On the tally, Signoretti was allowed to drive in and while going left-to-right, powered his way across the top of the crease and lifted a backhand past Espanola netminder James Meredith.
He then added another, striking shorthanded, at 12:59 when he finished off a two-on-one by whipping in a cross-ice feed from Ben Harris.
The home side kept it going and took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission as Lucas Antonioni went in unmarked and made a couple of nice moves prior to tucking the puck between the legs of Meredith.
Going up by four on a power play, Greater Sudbury added to their edge in the middle session with Harris finishing off a Signoretti set-up off an odd-man chance.
Last season’s NOJHL MVP then picked up another assist as the Cubs came into the Espanola end with numbers and saw Signoretti patiently wait for teammate Samuel Assinewai to arrive before firing a pass across that was neatly steered in at 12:15.
Not done there, Signoretti collected another helper on a two-man advantage as he fired an attempt that was stopped, but Alex Valade swooped in to bury the rebound.
Still up a skater, the hosts connected just prior to the horn sounding to end the session when Mason Walker darted down the left wing and teed up Cameron Shanks with a nice back pass that was whipped in from the slot.
Moving to the final frame, Paper Kings’ back-up goalkeeper Andrew Bezaire started the period for the visitors, in making his league debut.
Greater Sudbury greeted him with their fourth power play tally of the night after Valade sent a low shot from the point through a partial screen that found its way in.
The onslaught continued midway through the third as Walker redirected a Jacob Signoretti attempt from the right circle for the club’s fifth extra-man effort.
Espanola would eventually dash the shutout bid of Noah Beaulne with 7:17 to go when defenceman Carter Makasoff blasted a shot from the left circle for his first NOJHL goal.
Special teams saw a seventh tally supplied as Eidan McCarthy shovelled one in from close range, for PPG No. 6, to go with the earlier shorty for the hosts.
Kyle Navarro then finished off the one-sided romp off lengthy rush in transition.
The win helps the Cubs improve to 3-1-1-1 early on the year while the Paper Kings dropped to 1-4-0-0.
Both teams will be on home ice Friday as Espanola hosts the Blind River Beavers while Greater Sudbury entertains the Soo Eagles.
