The Greater Sudbury Cubs and the Powassan Voodoos won’t be playing their scheduled match tonight at the Gerry McRory Countryside Sports Complex due to the approaching winter storm.
“With the approaching inclement weather that is forecast for much of the province, and beyond, which will make travel extremely difficult, we felt it was vital that we do our best to maintain the safety of all involved,” stated NOJHL commissioner Robert Mazzuca. “This includes allowing those players, staff members, and others, who are heading home for the holidays, additional time to get there safely, before the roads become too difficult to navigate, or closed, due to the weather.”
The storm is expected to begin tonight and last through until Saturday evening, bringing up to 40 cm. Forecasters have been warning Ontarians all week that this storm has the potential to be punishing and intense. People are being asked to avoid travel.
The Cubs were hoping to capitalize on their 5-2 over the Voodoos on Dec. 21 at thew Powassan Sportsplex.
The win improved the Cubs’ record to 27-5-2-0, good enough for 56 points. The team continues to lead the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, just one point ahead of the Timmins Rock.
The loss drops the Voodoos’ record to 21-1-1-0. Their 43 points have them in sixth spot in the NOJHL.
On Thursday, Greater Sudbury opened the scoring at 10:39 of the first after Cubs’ forward Samuel Assinewai, fresh off a silver medal win with Team Canada East in the World Junior A Challenge, made a nice spin move up top and sent a feed over to Nicholas Toffoli, who sent a sharp low pass to a waiting Mason McCharles, who slammed in his 10th tally of the campaign.
The Voodoos evened things up in the second when, on the power play, Nicholas Liotino fired a shot at the Cubs’ net that struck a player and dribbled into the crease for Tucker Shields to chip over a sprawled Greater Sudbury goaltender Noah Metivier.
Matthew Mazzota helped give the lead back to the Cubs eight minutes into the second when he rushed down the left wing into Powassan’s zone and fired a pass to Billy Biedermann, who scored his 15th of the season to make it a 2-1 game for Sudbury.
The Voodoos tied it up shortly after on a goal by Alex Little.
The Cubs were able to retake the lead shortly after on a goal by Oliver Smith. They extended that lead to two goals in the third period when Toffoli scored his second of the game to make it 4-2 with 12:56 to play.
The Voodoos pulled their goalie late in the period for the extra skater but that gamble didn’t work in their favour.
Sobush scored a long-distance empty-netter in the final minute to end the game 5-2 for Sudbury.
