PHOTOS : Rob Fera – Sudbury Light Event Photography
SUDBURY, Ont. – The Greater Sudbury Cubs built up a significant lead and never looked back in skating a 7-1 victory over the Espanola Paper Kings Thursday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
After handling a couple of early man-down situations, Greater Sudbury capitalized with a power play of their own as Hudson Chitaroni tipped in a rising Chris Innes attempt from the top of the left circle in beating Espanola goaltender Andrew Gaulton, six and a half minutes into the match-up.
The tally helped Chitaroni extend a consecutive game point streak to six in succession.
Adding to their lead in the back half of the first period, the Cubs made it 2-0 when Samuel Assinewai finished off a crisp three-way passing play in etching his name on the game sheet for a 13th straight appearance.
Moving to the middle frame, the home side clicked once more while up a skater when Assinewai fed Oliver Smith from behind the net and saw him swat in his 40th of the season at 2:23.
A fourth on the night saw Greater Sudbury extend their edge when Cameron Shanks found Noah Kohan between the hashmarks where he whipped a shot past Gaulton.
Not done there, Smith notched another as he came down the right wing, made a nice move around a defender before neatly tucking one between the legs of Paper Kings’ netminder, with still over half a game to play.
Breaking it open from there, Cubs’ defenceman Justin Seguin worked his way free from his own zone on a clear cut breakaway and made no mistake with his chance and snapping it in after a couple of dekes.
Carrying their cushion into the third period, the hosts added to the onslaught when Shanks blasted one into the left corner in the opening minute.
Dashing the shutout bid of Noah Metivier in the late going, Espanola clicked on the power play when Kyle den Ouden spotted Blake Peters-Davey free in front and saw him bury his chance from the top of the crease to round out the scoring.
With the outcome, the Cubs reach the 40-win plateau on the season, moving to 40-12-1-2 overall.
In defeat, the Paper Kings drop to 33-21-1-0.
