The Greater Sudbury Cubs extended their win streak to seven on Sept. 28 after defeating the visiting Elliot Lake Vikings 5-2 on Sept. 28.
The hometowners drew first blood in this one on the power play near the halfway mark of the first period. Cameron Shanks slid a cross-ice pass to Hudson Chitaroni who skated in on the left side and lifted a shot over the blocker of Elliot Lake netminder Sam Keene.
It was Chitaroni’s seventh goal of the season.
The first period would end 1-0 for Sudbury. The next goal came at 13:05 of the second period when Cubs’ forward Ben Lacroix cruised down the slot and snapped a shot by the Keene to make it 2-0 for the Cubs.
Elliot Lake wasn’t out of the running though, scoring two goals in 28 seconds to tie it up at 2-2.
First, Max Ciesielski brought the Vikings to within one at 15:14 as he fired toward the net from a sharp angle that was inadvertently deflected in by a Cubs player.
Then, the tying tally came moments later thanks to Nathan Marincola. In a two-one-one with Ciesielski, Marincola converted a saucer pass into shot that beat Cubs’ goalie Noah Metivier.
The high-scoring few minutes saw the Cubs regain the lead at 16:54, thanks to team captain Oliver Smith’s scoring his eighth of the season as he was sent in alone by Nolan Newton, then proceeded to fire one low five-hole to make it 3-2 after 40 minutes.
Smith continues to lead the league in scoring.
Greater Sudbury wasn’t done scoring in the second just yet. At 3:55, Shanks wheeled out from the corner on a delayed penalty then pulled up and sent in a quick wrist shot toward the mass of players in front of the net that found its way in.
Smith scored his ninth of the season to seal the deal in short order to make it 5-2 for the Cubs.
The result sees Greater Sudbury remaining unbeaten on the season, moving to 7-0-0-0, while in defeat, the Vikings fell to 1-5-1-0.
The Cubs are back in action tonight as they welcome the French River Rapids to Centennial Arena in Hanmer.
