The fact the Greater Sudbury Cubs had trouble staying out of the penalty box may have contributed to the team’s 3-2 loss to the Calgary Canucks in May 13 action at the Centennial Cup in Oakville.
It was the third straight loss for the defending Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League champions. The 10-day Centennial Cup tournament, which determines the nation’s top Junior A team, is being held from May 9-19 in Oakville.
Opening play on May 10, the Cubs fell 10-2 to the Collingwood Blues. Then on May 12, Greater Sudbury took on the Navan Grads, losing that one, too, by a score of 5-1.
On Monday, Calgary opened the scoring 3:13 into the first period, off the stick of Gavin Schmidt (assisted by Ethan Casper and Billy Hooson).
Sudbury then spent the next several minutes killing penalities. Ben Harris took a tripping penality at 8:15, followed by Mason Chitaroni earning two separate minors for kneeing at 10:38. Then at 11:22, Cole Quevillon went to the box for tripping.
The Cubs were able to kill those penalties without taking anymore goals and the period ended with the Canucks up 1-0.
Greater Sudbury swapped out Noah Beaulne in net for Noah Metivier to start the second period, which is about all there is to say about a relatively uneventful 20 minutes of play.
Five minutes into the third period, the Canucks made it a 2-0 game thanks to Chris Kobelka (assisted by Ty Hipkin and Julien Gervais). After two matching penalties for roughing, the Cubs cut Calgary’s lead in half thanks to an unassisted goal from Nolan Newton.
The Canucks answered quickly thanks to a goal from Hipkin to make it a 3-1 game. About two minutes later, Samuel Assinewai scored the Cubs second goal of the game to make it 3-2, and that’s where things would stay (save from a couple more penalties).
The Cubs picked up eight penalties in this one to the Canucks’ four.
The Cubs are back in action on May 15 looking to stave off elimination. They are taking on Collège Français de Longueuil, the defending Ligue de Hockey Junior AAA de Québec champions.
