Given their druthers, perhaps the Greater Sudbury Cubs offered to play out the balance of their best of seven NOJHL in the league's northernmost locale. It's hard to argue with the success they enjoyed this week in their two game playoff road swing versus the Hearst Lumberjacks.
After dropping the series opener at home (6-2) and then being forced to overtime before deadlocking the series at a game apiece the next evening with a 5-4 win, the Cubs manhandled the Lumberjacks on the road to the tune of a combined score of 11-2 (6-1 in game three; 5-1 in game four).
As a result, the defending league champs will take to the ice Friday night at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex with a chance to earn a berth at the Centennial Cup in front of their home town fans for a second straight year.
The Cubs struck for six unanswered goals Tuesday night in Hearst after Mathieu Comeau gave the energetic crowd early reason for optimism, beating Karsen Chartier at 5:20 of the first period.
That was the only puck that would elude the 19 year-old netminder who started the season with the Strathroy Rockets before being acquired by the Cubs. Chartier earned third star honours with a 42-save performance in chalking up his 10th win in post-season play this spring.
Offensively, Mateo Signoretti enjoyed a night to remember, scoring twice, with solo markers coming courtesy of Lucas Signoretti, Ben Harris, Noah Kohan and Nolan Newton.
On Wednesday, Sudbury netted a pair of first period goals to secure a 2-0 lead and then built on that with a three goal third period outburst in a span of 2:39, effectively putting game four to bed.
A two-goal effort from Daks Klinkhammer was front and centre, with Lucas Signoretti, Nolan Newton and Eidan Macartney all joining the former Wolves' forward on the scoresheet before Henry Ouellet snapped an impressive shutout streak from Karsen Chartier.
Turning aside 46 shots on the night, Chartier is peaking at just the right time if Sudbury is to try and finish off the series and follow it up with a better showing than one year ago at nationals.
