The Greater Sudbury Cubs skated to a 7-1 win over the Espanola Paper Kings on March 7 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action.
After killing a couple of early penalties at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex, the Cubs caught a power play of their own. Hudson Chitaroni was able to capitalize on the man advantage and tipped in a Chris Innes attempt to Espanola goaltender Andrew Gaulton and make it 1-0 Sudbury.
The goal extended Chitaroni’s point streak to six games.
In the latter half of the first, the Cubs made it 2-0 thank to Samuel Assinewai, who finished off a crisp three-way passing play with a goal, extending his point streak to 13 games.
“Moving to the middle frame, the home side clicked once more while up a skater when Assinewai fed Oliver Smith from behind the net and saw him swat in his 40th of the season at 2:23,” a game release states.
Up 3-0, the Cubs extended their lead to four goals when Cameron Shanks found Noah Kohan between the hashmarks and he rifled a shot past Gaulton.
“Not done there, Smith notched another as he came down the right wing, made a nice move around a defender before neatly tucking one between the legs of Paper Kings’ netminder, with still over half a game to play.”
As if 5-0 wasn’t enough, the Cubs had more scoring in them. Sudbury defenceman Justin Seguin popped out of the Cubs’ zone and created a breakaway for himself, snapping it in after a couple of dekes to make it 6-0.
The third period wouldn’t contain as much scoring, but Sudbury wasn’t quite done yet, and neither were the Kings, who were still looking to get on the board.
In the opening minute of the third, though, the Cubs would score their seventh and final goal of the game.
“Dashing the shutout bid of Noah Metivier in the late going, Espanola clicked on the power play when Kyle den Ouden spotted Blake Peters-Davey free in front and saw him bury his chance from the top of the crease to round out the scoring.”
With the outcome, the Cubs reach the 40-win plateau on the season, moving to 40-12-1-2 overall. Greater Sudbury continues to sit second in the NOJHL, four points back of the Blind River Beavers.
In defeat, the Paper Kings drop to 33-21-1-0.
