Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – Striking four times in the first period, the Greater Sudbury Cubs never looked back and went on to crown the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 9-1 Thursday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Pacing the NOJHL in power play proficiency this season, the Cubs tacked on another to their man advantage totals when Samuel Assinewai wired a wrister upstairs on Gold Miners’ starter Caleb Shuker from the top of the left circle, 7:10 in.
That tally was his league-best 17th while up a skater and he now has at least one point in each of his past 24 games played.
Going by a pair while shorthanded, Greater Sudbury’s Lucas Signoretti made an impressive dash up ice and while driving to the net tucked in his 44th goal of the season.
This was also his fifth man-down marker in the NOJHL in 2024-25, which tops all skaters in that department.
Building on that, the home side banged in two more deep in the stanza to go up by four after one.
A Nate Lazarus laser made it 3-0 at 17:35 when he snagged a loose puck between the circles and zipped it past Shuker.
Less than a minute later, Nolan Newton found the range by steering in a cross-ice feed from Lazerus.
In the middle stanza, the host moved ahead by five after Matteo Signoretti tapped in a rebound off a Mason Walker chance.
That also saw Mason Janicki enter in relief for the visitors.
Continuing the onslaught however, Lucas Signoretti skated in a loop in the Kirkland Lake zone before neatly potting his second of the night.
Moments into another power play, Spencer Horgan took a face-off win by Newton and snapped it past a partially screened Janicki at 14:44 to extend the cushion.
Connecting once more on special teams, a second shorthanded effort by Greater Sudbury saw Ben Harris get just enough of a puck laying in front to get it across the goal line.
Adding to the one-sided result in the final frame, Mason Walker went to net and cut from right-to-left before tucking his 13th of the season.
The Gold Miners eventually benefitted from a turnover in deep by Cubs’ goaltender Karsen Chartier, that allowed Jordan Fitger to ease a backhand into an open net and spoil the shutout bid with 90 seconds to play in rounding out the scoring.
