Cubs comeback to clip Voodoos

Answering back from an early three-goal hole, the Greater Sudbury Cubs responded with six unanswered markers to defeat the Powassan Voodoos 6-3 Friday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at the Powassan Sportsplex.

The triumph sees the Cubs win their 19th game in a row.

Getting off to a great start, the Voodoos struck twice before the contest was three and a half minutes in.

Caleb Dawson notched the first one for the home side as he lifted in a rising attempt from a sharp angle, off an Owen Kahl chance, on the Greater Sudbury starter Noah Beaulne.

Powassan then made it 2-0 at 3:28 when Eric Whitelaw corralled a bouncing puck and while cutting around a defender, snapped a short-side shot into the bottom left corner.

That resulted in the Cubs making a goaltending change and saw Karsen Chartier enter in long-relief.

The Voodoos kept coming and went up 3-0 after controlling a draw that resulted in Kahl wiring one upstairs, over the blocker of Chartier, during a man advantage.

Battling back in the middle frame, the Cubs got two tallies off the stick of Samuel Assinewai, who ran a point streak to 20 in the process, to get them within one.

He put the visitors on the board at 4:22 by beating Powassan netminder Tyson Wilcox after weaving through traffic and roofing a shot while driving down the slot.

Assinewai then notched another, while falling, a couple of shifts later as he shovelled in a chance after teammate Cameron Shanks put a play in front.

Greater Sudbury then tied it at 12:22 compliments of former Powassan forward Michael MacLean, who snagged an attempt fired off the end boards by Ryan Rubic that came out the other side, that he quickly pumped in.

Up a skater deep into the frame, Rubic gave the Cubs the lead when he knocked in a loose puck laying in the crease during a goal-mouth scramble at 18:56.

In the third, a fifth marker in succession by Greater Sudbury saw defenceman Alexandre Valade lead a rush up-ice then take his rush wide before firing a feed in the slot that was quickly swatted in by Lucas Signoretti for his league-leading 38th goal, while also extending a point streak to 15 outings.

Capping off the comeback, Nolan Newton found the back of the net by splitting the defence and ripping in his 12th of the campaign with under five minutes to play, in rounding out the scoring.

That also saw Newton run a point streak to 20, which dates back to last season.