Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – The Greater Sudbury Cubs saw Eidan Macartney tally twice, while Matthew Vahramian posted a shutout, in a 4-0 win over the Timmins Rock Thursday in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League season opener contested at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
While the majority of the first period was a tight-checking, low-shot affair, Greater Sudbury did notch the initial goal of the 2025-26 season in the latter stages of the session.
On the marker, Macartney worked a give-and-go out of the corner with teammate Kaedyn Long and after firing a shot on target that was stopped by Timmins’ starter Ayden Mullen, he collected the rebound and stuffed it into the open left side at 19:03.
Moving to the middle stanza, a splendid individual effort from Cubs’ defenceman Spencer Horgan made it 2-0 as he powered his way to the net from the deep side boards, then made a nifty move and lifted a close-range backhand upstairs over the glove of Mullen.
Building on that, the home side banged in another less than a minute later when Cameron Vehkala notched his first in the NOJHL as he dropped a pass across to Jonathan Varela, then quickly pumped in the return feed from the top of the crease.
The assist gave Varela his initial point in the league as Greater Sudbury took a three-tally cushion after 40 minutes of play.
In the final frame, a big stop by Mullen during a Cubs’ man advantage kept the guests in it as he stymied Daks Klinkhammer from the slot nearly nine minutes in by flashing the leather.
Still pressing, Greater Sudbury capped off the victory late in regulation when a play generated by Horgan saw him fire a crisp cross-ice feed over to Macartney who promptly lifted in his second of the night with 1:47 remaining to round out the scoring.
The Cubs are back at it Friday as they host the Hearst Lumberjacks in a rematch of last season’s NOJHL final at 7:10 p.m.
As for the Rock, they return home for their opener September 19 at McIntyre Arena when they entertain the Blind River Beavers in a 7:30 p.m. start and on FLOHockey.tv.
