Cubs inaugural season comes to end in heartbreaking 3-2 loss to the Soo

The Greater Sudbury Cubs inaugural season came to an end on April 15 in a heartbreaking loss to the Soo Eagles.

The Cubs battled their way to the sixth game of the best-of-seven Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League series against the second-place Soo squad. The final game was a squeaker that ended 3-2, sending the Cubs home and advancing the Eagles to battle it out against the Soo Thunderbirds in the NOJHL semi-finals.

“Over 500 fans jammed the Countryside Arena to cheer-on the Cubs,” the team said this week.

The Eagles made it a 1-0 game in the first period. Sloppy play though from the Cubs in the second sealed their fate. Sudbury took two penalties within 30 seconds and the Eagles were able to capitlize on both, jumping out to a 3-0 before the final frame started.

Billy Biedermann “scored a beauty” from the slot early in the third (assist, Pierson Sobush), the team said, to make it 3-1 game.

“The Cubs narrowed the score to 3-2 when captain Kyler Campbell scored with 6.5 minutes remaining in the game,” the Cubs said in a news release.

Sudbury pulled the goaltender and went with an extra attacker over the final two minutes. They managed to keep the Soo out of their net, but weren’t able to capitalize with the extra attacker.

“The Cubs had some great looks to tie the contest, but could not beat Eagles goaltender Ryan Gilmour,” who went on to be named the game’s first star with 38 saves.

The Cubs outshot the Eagles for the sixth game in a row firing 40 shots at Gilmour while Joel Rainville faced 35 shots. The power play was the difference-maker with the Eagles scoring twice on five power plays while the Cubs were 0 for 6 with the man advantage.

With the season in the bag, the squad had a final team meeting this week to hand out hardware to its top players.

2021-2022 Greater Sudbury Cubs award-winners are: