Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – Three goals on the power play, and two more while down a man, helped the Greater Sudbury Cubs grind out a 6-2 victory over the Hearst Lumberjacks Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
The lone marker in the first period came midway through it when Greater Sudbury’s Owen King clicked on the man advantage by taking a cross-ice feed from Mason Walker and whipping it high over the blocker of Hearst netminder William Stonehouse for his 25th tally of the season.
With the assist, Walker ran a point streak to nine, while Spencer Horgan, who had the other helper, is now on an seven-game heater.
The Lumberjacks drew level 5:43 into the second stanza when a Cubs’ defender fanned on a pass in his own end that allowed Hunter Kelso to whip in the tying tally past goalkeeper Iain Wintle.
Retaking the lead 10 minutes later, Nolan Newton converted on another power play for the visitors as he was set-up down low by Walker and quickly cranked a shot by Stonehouse for his 30th of the campaign.
Greater Sudbury then took a 3-1 cushion into the intermission as Horgan struck shorthanded at 18:23 after taking a one-handed shovel pass from Kaedyn Long and taking it to his left and lifting in a second chance.
Moving to the third, the Cubs supplied some early insurance thanks to Noah Kohan converting 38 seconds in after snagging a turnover and sending a sizzler past the glove of Stonehouse from the slot.
Another shorthanded effort saw Daks Klinkhammer opt to shoot on an odd-man rush and make no mistake for his 19th of 2025-26.
Still on the power play, Cole Shepherdson got that back for Hearst as he got just enough of a redirection to ease it across the goal line at 6:21.
Securing the result with a third extra-man marker, Horgan whipped in a shot from mid-range to round out the scoring.
With the loss, the Cubs move to 28-6-1-2 overall and the loss drops the Lumberjacks to 21-8-0-2.
