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The Greater Sudbury Cubs skated to a 6-3 win over the Espanola Paper Kings last night thanks, in part, to two power play goals from Mason Walker.
Despite the win, Espanola struck first in the contest at Gerry McCrory Countryside Arena, just 75 seconds into the game, when Luc Warner fed Joseph Coates at the top of the crease and roofed it on Greater Sudbury starter Mateo Beites.
That brings Coates' consecutive game point streak to six.
“Notching the equalizer six minutes later, the Cubs came into Paper Kings territory on the left side where Kaeden Long dropped a pass back to Caden Dubreuil, who fired a shot that was handled by the pad of netminder Jack Helkie, but Long was quick to stuff in the rebound on a backhand,” the game report reads.
The Cubs peppered the Kings with shots during the period and finally scored another to go ahead 2-1 with just a second to go in the first. Cubs’ forward Owen King spun at the top of right circle and wired wrist shot into the back of the net on a late period power play.
“That gives King seven tallies in his past five games.”
Moving onto the second period, an early turnover saw Greater Sudbury make it 3-1 after Spencer Horgan lifted a backhand by Helkie.
“The Cubs then went up 4-1 while up a skater as Nolan Newton wheeled in and slid a crisp cross-crease pass to a hard-charging Walker that he promptly buried at 5:05,” the game report states.
After back-to-back power plays, the Paper Kings managed to pull within one goal of the Cubs, and it’s mostly thanks to NOJHL rookie point leader, Owen Smith.
“He initially notched his 11th goal of the season as he pumped in a shot in the slot off a set-up from teammate Cameron Menard,” the report states. “Smith then collected his 25th point as he sent Carter Drigo in, who whipped the puck through the legs of Beites.”
The Cubs opted to pull Beites at this point and replace him with Matthew Vahramian in relief.
Regrouping, solid forechecking by Greater Sudbury made it a 5-3 game with a goal from defenceman Alex Valade.
“A third special teams effort then made it 6-3 Cubs when Walker notched another on the man advantage as he finished off the leftovers off a Long chance and slammed it in for his third multiple-goal outing in just eight contests this season.”
Moving onto the third period, the Cubs’ strong offence kept the pressure on but Helki was solid between the pipes and kept the puck out of the net, and the game ended 6-3 for Greater Sudbury.
With the victory, the Cubs improve their record to 14-6-1-0, good enough for second place in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. The Paper Kings’ record drops to 13-8-0-1, which puts them in fourth place.
The Cubs are back in action tonight on the road, when they will travel to Powassan to take on the Voodoos.