Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – The high-scoring Greater Sudbury Cubs supplied a 10-pack to their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League-leading goal totals Thursday as they went on to crown the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 10-2 at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
It was the Cubs who began the outburst past the midway mark of the first period when Owen King snapped in a rebound from the slot for his 26th of the campaign.
With Spencer Horgan and Kaedyn Long collecting assists on the play, the duo extended point streaks to eight and seven respectively.
Horgan then made it 2-0 with a man advantage effort at 12:31 as he weaved through defenders off a rush started at his own blueline then roofed a wrist shot over Kirkland Lake netminder Jayden Claveau.
Up a skater themselves later in the session, the Gold Miners’ Nathan Harper stuffed in his team-best 14th past Cubs’ starter Matthew Vahriamian from in close.
Coming right back, Daks Klinkhammer made it 3-1 after one when his attempt from the left circle leaked through Claveau and trickled across the goal line.
Skating four aside to begin the middle stanza, Horgan collected his third point of the evening when his pass over to Nolan Newton allowed the forward to move in from left-to-right and fire a shot back across into the left corner of the net to see him etch his name on the game sheet for a ninth consecutive outing.
The Greater Sudbury onslaught continued at 2:19 when Eidan Macartney was sent in alone by King and made it 5-1 with a rising, high blocker side, sizzler.
With that, the visitors opted to make a goaltending change as back-up Brian Rathwell entered in long relief.
A favourable bounce saw the Cubs add another when a spinning King sent an attempt to the top of the crease that clipped off teammate Jacob Signoretti and flopped in.
An impressive toe drag by Jack Nolan got one back for the guests as he wired a chance past the glove of Vahramian less then a minute later.
However, the hosts blew it open with back-to-back-to-back power play goals from King; Macartney and Klinkhammer to seize control after 40 minutes.
Tacking on a 10th on the evening with a fifth extra-man effort halfway through the final frame, Caden Dubreuil redirected one in from the top of the crease in what was the evening’s final tally.
With the lopsided win, the Cubs improve to 29-6-1-2 and with the loss, the Gold Miners dropped to 11-22-0-4.
