The Greater Sudbury Cubs visited Noelville Arena on Dec. 16 and upended the French River Rapids 4-1.
Knotted at one goal apiece for most of the game, the Cubs exploded in the third to score three unanswered goals and earn a fitting 4-1 win on Friday night.
The win improves the Cubs’ record to 26-5-2-0. With 54 points, Greater Sudbury continues to lead the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, one point ahead of the Timmins Rock and two points ahead of the Hearst Lumberjacks.
The loss drops the Rapids record to 5-26-0-1, good for 11 points. French River is sitting second from the bottom in league standings.
The Rapids opened the scoring at 8:18 of the first when Matthew Hill banged in a rebound off an Adam Boucher bullet from the right point to beat Cubs’ goalkeeper Noah Beaulne.
Late in the first and on the power play, the Cubs would tie it up when Billy Biedermann came in from the left side and snapped a shot by diving French River netminder Matthew Perdue.
And that’s where the game would stay for the rest of the opening frame and through the second period.
Greater Sudbury really went to work in the third.
Three minutes into the final frame, Greater Sudbury defenceman Christopher Innes jumped into a rush and set-up Cole Crowder in close, who knocked it past Perdue for his 14th goal of the season.
Adding some insurance in the latter stages of the contest, Cameron Walker found himself free in the right circle where he ripped a right shot off the post and in.
They then capped off the road victory with a long-range empty-netter from Nicholas Toffoli to round out the night’s scoring.
The Cubs are back in action on Dec. 21 at the Powassan Sportsplex to take on the Voodoos.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated it was the Rapids that ended the Cub's nine-game winning streak. That was an error. It was the Espanola Paper Kings who ended the win streak. Sudbury.com apologizes for the error.
