The Greater Sudbury Cubs taught the visiting Elliot Lake Vikings a lesson on Feb. 29, sending the team packing 11-2.
On the ice at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex, the Cubs drew first blood in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match.
“Greater Sudbury began the night’s scoring nearly three minutes into the match-up when Samuel Assinewai wheeled out from the side boards and fired a shot past Elliot Lake starter Sam Keene from the right circle,” the league said in a news release.
Assinewai is on fire lately, earning points in each of his past 11 appearances.
The Cubs made 2-0 on the power play 10 minutes later thanks to Oliver Smith, scoring his 38th goal of the season, thanks to a sharp pass from Ethan Larman.
“Getting one back just prior to the first intermission, the Vikings’ Gavin McLenaghan generated a rush down the left wing and while powering hard to net put a shot on net that was stopped by Cubs’ goalkeeper Matthew Vahramian, but Max Ciesielski chipped in the rebound for his eighth of the campaign,” the release said.
Assinewai picked up another goal five minutes into the second period, on a breakaway no less, beating Vikes’ netminder Keene to earn his 20th goal of the season.
A few shifts later, Hudson Chitaroni then made it 4-1, lifting in a bouncing puck put into the crease by Justin Seguin.
At 12:52 of the second, Smith fed Noah Kohan who cranked a one-timer past Keene to make it 5-1. Then, Chitaroni guided one in from short range on the power play to make it 6-1.
That should’ve been enough, but the Cubs weren’t done scoring just yet.
The Vikings did manage to score their final goal of the game in the closing minutes of the second. At 15:38, a strong Ciesielski forecheck set-up McLenaghan, and from a sharp angle he whipped one past Vahramian to pot his 20th for Elliot Lake and make it a 6-2 game.
The Cubs added three goals in quick succession early in the third, courtesy of Larmand, Kohan and Smith, making it a 9-2 game.
Nolan Newton had the chance to make it 10-2 on a penalty shot but Keene stymied him.
Mason Chitaroni made it 10-2 for the Cubs shortly after.
Newton made up for the penalty shot before the end of the third to get that 11-2 final score.
With the outcome, Greater Sudbury’s record improves to 39-11-1-2 while in defeat the Vikings drop to 5-39-1-4.
With 81 points, the Cubs sit one point back of the Blind River Beavers for top spot in the NOJHL.
Sons become Cubs
In other Cubs news, the team announced on Thursday night that the Nickel City Hockey Association (NCHA) is rebranding their ‘AA’ and ‘A’ teams as the Nickel City Cubs for the 2024-25 season.
“We are very pleased that the Nickel City Hockey Association approached us with the idea to brand their teams with the Cubs name and logo starting next season” said Mark Burgess, Cubs owner and president, in a news release. “My family and I, as well as our team staff, have always enjoyed partnering with minor hockey. To have 16 NCHA teams wearing our logo is very exciting for our organization and will greatly assist with raising awareness of the Cubs brand locally and across the province.”
For his part, NCHA President Gus Lescault was equally pleased.
“Today marks an exciting day for Nickel City Hockey as we change our team’s name from the Sons to the Cubs, “ Lescault said. “We are very grateful to Mark Burgess and the Cubs organization for sharing their name and logo with our ‘AA’ and ‘A’ teams and I know that our youngsters wearing their new Cubs jersey will be very proud to do so.”
The new partnership will extend beyond the use of the Cubs name and logo, the team said. For example, the NCHA and the Cubs will be partnering with local retailers on the sale of Cubs swag while the Cubs will be promoting NCHA events on their LED Digital billboard assets throughout the year. Nickel City teams will be attending Cubs home games on Thursday nights “free of charge” by wearing their team jerseys. There are also plans for NCHA contests to be held during the intermission of Cubs home games.
