The visiting Espanola Paper Kings put an end to the Greater Sudbury Cubs’ nine-game winning streak on Dec. 15 at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
The game ended 4-1 for Espanola.
The win improves Espanola’s record to 15-11-2-2 while Greater Sudbury’s drops to 25-5-2-0 on the year. The Cubs still lead the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League with 52 points, followed closely by the Timmins Rock with 51 points and the Hearst Lumberjacks with 50.
Cubs’ star Pierson Sobush opened the scoring on Thursday, finding the back of the net for a six straight outing as he got a friendly bounce off the end boards and hammered home a shorthanded marker from a sharp angle that flew past Espanola netminder Jake Marois at 4:43.
Espanola tied it up at 1-1 seven minutes later on the power play when Alexander Christopoulos controlled a bouncing puck and lifted a backhand passed Cubs’ starter Noah Metivier.
A scoreless second period saw the two teams fighting for the advantage. Despite the back and forth action though, netminders for both teams proved tough to beat.
That ended pretty quickly in the third. Espanola took a 2-1 lead 1:34 into the third by capitalizing on a Greater Sudbury turnover. Paper Kings forward Jonathan Lush set up Lucas Signoretti who fired a low shot under Metivier and picked up his 12th tally of the season.
Espanola went up 3-1 when Hunter Friesen converted from close range with just over 11 minutes remaining in regulation.
The guests then finished off the away triumph in the final minute as Benjamin Lacroix put one into an empty net to wraps things up offensively.
The Cubs are back in action tonight on the road, taking on the French River Rapids at Noelville Arena.
