Beginning 2025 much like they did to wrap-up 2024, the Greater Sudbury Cubs rolled to their 15th consecutive Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory after downing the Powassan Voodoos 7-2 Saturday in an encounter at the Powassan Sportsplex.
Despite the break, the Cubs played the game shorthanded on the back end dressing only four defencemen with Mason Chitaroni and Spencer Horgan both out of the lineup.
Resuming their torrid pace, Greater Sudbury wasted little time in opening the scoring as the broke out of their own zone on a two-on-one.
There Mason Walker fired an attempt to the target from the left side that Powassan netminder Austin Seibel didn't control, which allowed Lucas Antonioni to stuff in the loose puck, 2:15 into the proceedings.
Extending their lead just before the seven-minute mark, Cubs’ defenceman Alexandre Valade started a rush up ice and pumped a shot through Seibel from the high slot.
Coming right back, Jack Nolan put the Voodoos on the board as Caden Dubreuil won a draw back to him, which he whipped by Greater Sudbury’s Karsten Chartier, who was making his NOJHL debut.
Getting that back at 10:30 of the first period, the Cubs clicked on the power play after Walker fired a crisp cross-ice pass over to Jacob Sigoretti, who zipped it in from the left circle.
Moving to the middle frame, the home side got back to within one when Justin Rousseau put a pass in front that was quickly buried by Daniil Viscu, with just over five minutes left in the session.
Heading to the third, the Cubs went back up by a pair at 1:24 after Cameron Shanks lifted in a backhand off a set-up from Noah Kohan.
That play helped Kohan run a point streak to nine in succession, while Samuel Assinewai, who collected the second assist on the play, is now on a 16-game streak.
Building on that, the guests grabbed a turnover and made it 5-2 as Nolan Newton clicked from close range.
Newton now has etched his name on the game sheet in each of his 10 games played in 2024-25 as well as 16 in a row dating back to last season.
Picking up the primary helper on that effort was Lucas Signoretti, who runs a point streak to 11 in the process.
Busting it open, Signoretti cranked in a back pass from Newton for his league-leading 35th, which also saw him find the back of the net for a sixth game in succession.
Finishing it off during a man advantage, Daks Klinkhammer banged in his 11th with 5:50 to go to round out the scoring for the guests.
With the win, the Cubs improve to 28-2-1-1 and with the loss, the Voodoos fall to 14-12-03.
