The Greater Sudbury Cubs fell to the Espanola Paper Kings in a shootout on Dec. 14.
Espanola jumped out to an early lead in this one, but the Cubs managed to battle their way to a tie to send the game into extra time. The late effort would send the game to an eventual shootout, but the Paper Kings came out on top there, too, claiming a 4-3 win.
“Capitalizing on the night’s initial power play, Espanola took the lead just over eight minutes in, when Graydon Guthrie stuffed in a rebound, off a Sean Short shot from the top of the right circle, past Greater Sudbury goaltender Noah Metivier,” the league said in a news release.
The game sat at 1-0 Espanola going into the second period. The Paper Kings would quickly make it 2-0 after Atley Gringorten found an opening on Metivier.
At 11:21 of the second, the Cubs would cut Espanola’s lead in half after Matteo Signoretti picked off a play in the neutral zone and went in on a two-on-one with Oliver Smith. The resulting goal almost wasn’t and required discussions by the officials before it was ruled a point.
“A late man advantage helped Greater Sudbury knot the affair at 2-2 when Mason Chitaroni fired a shot from up high that clipped off an Espanola defender and went through the legs of goaltender Jake Marois.”
The Paper Kings regained the lead five minutes into the third period on a power play. Jack Lynes beelined a pass in front to a waiting Gringorton who snapped it past Metivier’s blocker.
Sudbury would knot it up at 3-3 at 13:20 of the third thanks to a goal from Josh Kavanagh.
A scoreless five-minute overtime failed to determine a winner, and sent it to extra shots to decide the outcome.
Despite the loss, the Cubs still sit atop the NOJHL with 53 points, five points ahead of the second place Blind River Beavers.
The Cubs hit the road today for a 7:30 p.m. visit to Pullar Stadium to take on the Soo Eagles.
