It had to come to an end sometime. On Thursday night at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre, the Greater Sudbury Cubs’ 13-game winning streak came to an end when they fell 6-3 to the Hearst Lumberjacks.
If the streak had to come to an end, it’s fitting perhaps but little consolation that it came at the hands of the No. 2 ranked team in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Hearst opened the scoring at just 39 seconds in after DonHeaven Veilleux chipped the puck ahead and darted down the right wing, firing a pass through the crease that found the stick of a hard-charging Aiden Kalin who directed it past Cubs’ starter Noah Beaulne.
The Lumberjacks made it 2-0 about 10 minutes later after Henry Ouellet stuffed a bouncing puck into the open side of Greater Sudbury’s net.
“Greater Sudbury got one back, moments into a man advantage, thanks to Noah Kohan swiftly swatting in a crisp cross-ice pass from Samuel Assinewai at 12:31, in eluding Lumberjacks’ netminder Alexandre Boivin,” said a league game report.
Moving onto the second period, the Cubs won a draw, giving Nate Lazarus the chance to snap a shot from the point that was tipped in by league scoring leader Lucas Signoretti, his 16th of the season, tying the game at 2-2.
Hearst got the lead back after Shillinglaw beat the Cubs’ defenders and snapped a shot from a sharp angle that slipped past Beaulne.
With the Lumberjacks up 3-2, Greater Sudbury pulled Beaulne and put Matthew Vahramian between the pipes.
At 15:37, a Mathieu Comeau goal for Hearst made it a 4-2 game. Then, just before the second period ended, Veilleux scooted down the right side and beat Vahramian with a shot in the top right corner, making it 5-2.
The Cubs got one back in the third after Assinewai worked a give-and-go on a delayed penalty with Signoretti and beat Boivin to make it 5-3.
Greater Sudbury pulled Vahramian as the third was ending to get the man advantage, but only succeeded into giving Hearst the chance to score an empty-netter from Bronson Babyak.
Of note, all three of the Cubs defeats on the campaign have come at the hands of the Lumberjacks, including one in overtime.
The win moves Hearst to 13-4-0-1 overall, while the loss sees Greater Sudbury drop to 14-2-1-1.
