Photos: Jeremy Seguin
FRENCH RIVER – A red-hot Greater Sudbury Cubs side capped of a 9-0-1-0 October Saturday by defeating the French River Rapids 10-0 Saturday in a chippy Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Noelville Arena.
Surging Sudbury got going offensively eight and a half minutes into the contest as recently addition Samuel Assinewai finished off a rebound after his initial attempt was stopped by French River netminder Ben Gustafson.
Striking three times in rapid succession helped the Cubs break it open in the middle session.
Matthew Mazzota got the first one at 6:06 as he powered his way towards the net from left side and roofed one on the Rapids’ goalkeeper.
The visitors then made it 3-0 just over a minute later with Oliver Smith sniping his seventh of the season, which came from the top of the circle, during a man advantage opportunity.
Connecting once more, Kyloe Ellis put the guests up by four moments later as he put a wrist through a partial screen that eluded Brady Dyer, who entered the game following the third Greater Sudbury marker.
Ellis added another later in period as he supplied a man advantage effort with a short-side wrister from left of Dyer.
Up a skater early in the third, the league’s goal leaders tacked on another thanks to Miguel Renaud as he finished off a flurry of chances the Cubs as they buzzed around the Rapids net.
Adding an exclamation point to the one-sided triumph during a delayed penalty Cameron Walker found himself free in front where he chopped one in to give him nine goals on the year.
Greater Sudbury then tacked on three more markers in the late going, all on the man advantage, compliments of Mazzota, Ben Harris and Renaud to finish off the one-sided result.
Nathaniel Boyes did his part defensively in net for the Cubs to collect the shutout, his first in the NOJHL.
In all, Greater Sudbury scored six times on the man advantage, and once on a delayed penalty, to take over the league-lead in power play proficiency at 29.9%.
Those half-dozen extra-man efforts were the most in league play since back on November 18, 2016, when the Cochrane Crunch did likewise in a road decision at Espanola.