Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – After falling behind by two early, the surging Greater Sudbury Cubs countered with five unanswered goals to defeat the Hearst Lumberjacks 5-2 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matchup Friday at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
The Lumberjacks wasted little time in taking the lead as after a Mathieu Comeau dump in, Cameron Menard corralled the puck behind the net and fed it in front, right to Luc Warner, who quickly lifted it past Cubs’ starter Iain Wintle, 30 seconds into the proceedings.
Adding another while on the power play, Hearst’s Nathan Seed won a draw back to Cole Miller on the right point, who put a shot to the target that hit off Seed and bounced in at 5:40.
That resulted in Greater Sudbury opting to make an early change in net as Matthew Vahramian entered in long relief.
Up a skater themselves, the Cubs got on the board as Caden Dubreuil pumped in a rebound by netminder Jack Helkie off a Spencer Horgan attempt.
With the tally, Dubreuil ran a point streak to seven outings.
Pulling even in last minute of the first period, Mason Walker jumped in with speed to generate a two-on-one, then took a bouncing feed from Lucas Antonioni and promptly put in his 27th of the campaign.
The guests then added another early in the second stanza as Daks Klinkhammer scooped up the puck in the neutral zone then darted in, split the defence, then powered his way to the net where he wired a shot over the blocker of Helkie.
Continuing to press, the league-leading Cubs made it 4-2 when Owen King neatly guided in a crisp pass put through the crease by Walker, during a man advantage, at 6:29.
In collecting the second assist on that tally, Nolan Newton extended a point streak to 17.
Looking to get closer in the late going, Hearst got their goaltender out for an extra attacker, but Dubreuil iced it with an empty netter from mid-ice to wrap-up the road result.
The red-hot 36-6-2-2 Cubs have now not lost in regulation since back on November 8, which is a span of 26 games that has featured 23 victories, one tie and two overtime setbacks in that span.
In defeat, the Lumberjacks see their 12-game winning streak come to an end as they fall to 33-9-0-3 overall.
