Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – Collecting a five-point night from Lucas Signoretti, the Greater Sudbury Cubs went on to sink the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 8-0 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up Thursday night at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Posting his initial NOJHL shutout in the win was Greater Sudbury goalkeeper Matthew Vahramian.
Wasting little time in making an impression with his new club, just acquired defenceman Spencer Horgan connected 1:09 into his Cubs debut, as he steered in a cross-ice pass from Samuel Assinewai.
The assist for Assinewai helped him extend a consecutive game point streak to seven in succession.
Greater Sudbury then tacked on two more before the midway mark if the first period to take early control.
Daks Klinkhammer banged in a rebound from the left side on Kirkland Lake netminder Kael Moberg at 8:44, while Assinewai buried his 14th of the campaign, on the next shift, with a sharp shot fired by the blocker and into the net, both with help from Signoretti.
Moving to the second stanza, the Gold Miners generated a number of quality chances early on, but could not beat Vahramian, who stood tall with multiple close-range stops.
Countering halfway through the proceedings, Signornetti saw a friendly bounce that allowed him to go in alone on a clear-cut breakaway where he made a couple of quick fakes and sent a low attempt through the legs of Moberg for his league-leading 19th goal of the campaign.
He continued his big night in the final session as he snagged a loose puck and wheeled out of the corner before converting with a sizzler to reach the 20-goal plateau for a third straight year.
Adding to their edge, power play markers from Assinewai, off a nice spin move at the top of the crease on a five-on-three, and a wrister from Klinkhammer from the left circle, put the game out of reach.
Mason Walker then wrapped up the scoring after taking a Ben Harris feed from down low and sending an attempt over the shoulder of the Kirkland Lake netminder.
With the victory, the NOJHL front-running Cubs improve to 19-2-1-1 overall, while the loss sees the Gold Miners drop to 2-18-0-2.
Both teams are back at it Saturday as Kirkland Lake hosts Iroquois Falls while Greater Sudbury travels to Powassan in a pair of 7 p.m. starts.
