Photos: Cassy Seguin
FRENCH RIVER – Collecting two tallies apiece from Oliver Smith and Nolan Newton was more than enough to propel the Greater Sudbury Cubs to a 6-1 decision over the French River Rapids in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Sunday matinee at Noelville Arena.
Greater Sudbury began the scoring just past the seven-minute mark of the match-up compliments of Smith as he redirected in a shot from the left point from Nate Lazarus.
Tacking on two more, the Cubs went up 3-0 thanks to a pair of tallies from Newton to give him the NOJHL goal lead with his 11th and 12th of the campaign as he beat French River netminder Ethan Carlone with one through the five-hole on a two-and-one, then took a drop pass from Hudson Chitaroni and zipped it in, glove side.
Heading to the middle stanza, Smith joined Newton for league top goal-getter honours at 11:33 as he was set-up by Cameron Shanks and proceeded to rip it blocker side past Elijah Grant, who took over in net for the Rapids to begin the second.
French River did solve Greater Sudbury’s Noah Metivier late in the session when a solid forecheck forced a turnover and saw Brandon Melsness finish off a crisp give-and-go with Michael Christopoulos.
In the final frame, the Cubs put the game away though with man advantage efforts, off the sticks of Chitaroni and Brock Houser, to help them move to 10-1-0-0 on the season.
The Chitaroni effort saw him whip in a Smith cross-ice feed, while Houser ripped a shot upstairs from the left point on a five-on-three.
In defeat, the Rapids dropped to 1-10-0-0 so far this season.
