The Greater Sudbury Cubs, the top-ranked junior team in Canada, continued its winning ways on Jan. 9, when they welcomed the French River Rapids to the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
The Rapids probably didn’t feel all that welcome actually as the Cubs skated to a 16th straight win, sending French River packing by a score of 9-2. Cubs forward Daks Klinkhammer had an incredible night, supplying four of those nine goals all on his own.
The Cubs struck first after a Jacob Signoretti blast from the left point clipped a stick and beat Rapids goalie Zachary Burleigh, making his Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League debut.
Up 1-0, the Cubs added another shorthanded a few minutes later. Klinkhammer scored his first of the night after snagging a bouncing puck at his own blueline and racing in on a breakaway.
The Cubs would score again a few minutes later, this time on the power play. Noah Kohan tucked in a backhand to make it 3-0 after driving hard down the left wing.
“The goal gives Kohan points in 10 straight outings, while Samuel Assinewai and Lucas Signoretti collected assists on the play, to extend point streaks to 17 and 12 respectively,” the game report states.
At 14:03 of the first, Klinkhammer would notch his second of the night, which saw Burleigh pulled from the French River net, with back-up Nicholas Tarantella stepping in.
The second period dawned with Greater Sudbury up 4-0. The Rapids put Burleigh back in net after using the intermission to collect himself.
If French River hoped the second period would go differently, Klinkhammer disabused them of that notion pretty quickly. Within a few minutes of the start of the second, he lifted a backhand past Burleigh to make it 5-0.
“Continuing to press, the home side added a sixth on the night when Lucas Signoretti stuffed in his NOJHL-leading 36th goal off a feed from Assinewai.”
With 30 seconds till the end of the period, Klinkhammer would score his 4th goal of the night after he spun in the slot and buried a low shot into the bottom left corner.
“French River eventually solved the Cubs’ Noah Beaulne when Sergy Suschenko fired a nice pass across to Hunter Vilanez, on an odd-man rush, who promptly whipped in his team-best 16th of the season.”
The Cubs weren’t done scoring though. Nate Lazerus, back in the line-up for the first time in two months, lobbed one in from centre ice that took a wild hop and skipped past Burleigh.
Kohan added his second of the night after he whipped in an attempt from between the circles.
The Rapids would add just one more before the period ended, with Suschenko picking up his first goal of the season during a Rapids power play, blasting a one-timer by Beaulne off a Dominic Bzdyl set-up to round out the scoring.
The result sees the first place Cubs improve to 31-2-1-1 overall and with the loss, the Rapids fell to 12-19-1-2.
The Cubs continue to hold a commanding 11-point lead in the NOJHL over the Hearst Lumberjacks in second place.
