The Greater Sudbury Cubs could not dig themselves out of the hole they created early in the week, but they certainly finished the 2024 Centennial Cup in Oakville a heck of a lot better than they started it.
The NOJHL champs were swamped out of the gate, thumped 10-2 last Friday by the Collingwood Blues. And while a 5-1 setback to the Navan Grads on Sunday did not appear a whole lot better, a pair of late empty-net goals certainly distorted the final score.,/p>
By Monday, the Cubs had regained their footing, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Calgary Canucks which saw the locals outshot by a slim margin of 31-30.
Calgary netted the only goal of the opening frame courtesy of Gavin Schmidt and increased their lead to 2-0 five minutes into the third when Chris Kobelka found the back of the net for the AJHL representatives.
With the teams playing four on four midway through the frame, Nolan Newton cut the deficit in half with a nifty wrap-around goal, though the Canucks would get that one back less than two minutes later thanks to Ty Hipkin.
Sudbury again closed to within one as Samuel Assinewai converted on a goal mouth scramble with an unassisted effort but that was as close as the Cubs would get.
Playing for pride on Wednesday, the local juniors displayed plenty, riding a 22-save shutout from Noah Beaulne to a 6-0 win over the Collège Francais de Longueuil as Marshall McCharles paced the attack with a two-goal effort.
Ben Lacroix, Justin Seguin, Cameron Shanks and Mason Chitaroni rounded out the scoring for the Sudbury crew that brought the NOJHL banner back to the nickel city for the first time in more than a decade.