Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
Coming off a 10 – 2 loss to the Ontario Junior Hockey League Collingwood Blues to open the 2024 Centennial Cup National Championship in Oakville, Ontario on Friday, May 10th, the (0-1) Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League champions, the Sudbury Cubs returned to action for game two on Sunday, May 12th to face the (1-0) Central Canada Hockey League’s Navan Grads.
3:16 into the opening period, Navan’s Colin MacDougall picks a Sudbury turnover to the right of the Cubs net in the corner, MacDougall skates from the corner to skate across the front of Sudbury’s crease to slide the opening goal unassisted under Sault Ste Marie native Noah Metivier to give the Grads a 1 – 0 lead. Gabriel Crete skated from behind the back of the Cubs net to right to send a pass to younger brother Maximus Crete to slide the Grads second goal under a sprawling Sudbury netminder Noah Metivier at 12:09 of the second to give the Navans a 2 – 0 lead. Colin Holmes added the other helper on Crete’s first of the Centennial Cup. Sudbury’s Oliver Smith picks up a turnover in the right faceoff circle to fire a pass to Marshall McCharles between the faceoff circles all alone for his second of the championships over Grad goaltender Jaeden Nelson’s blocker to pull the Cubs within one at 11:34 of the second. Samuel Assinewai notched the other assist on McCharles’ goal.
On a powerplay through traffic, Matthew Roy fires a shot along the ice from the top of the right faceoff circle to find the back of Sudbury’s net through netminder Metivier’s five hole to give the Grads a 3 – 1 lead at 11:15 of the third. Cristobal Tola and Colin McDougall notched the contributors on Roy’s goal. With the Cubs on a six on four with Noah Metivier on Sudbury’s bench for an extra attacker at 16:35, Navan defenseman Nicholas Paone fires a puck from behind the right Grad goalline to find an empty Cubs’ net to increase the CCHL champions’ lead to 4 – 1 unassisted and shorthanded. With Metivier back on the bench for an extra attacker with 52 seconds remaining in Sunday’s contest and Devon Savignac and Gabriel Crete on a two on one against Sudbury’s Mason Chitaroni, Devon Savignac finds the back of the Cubs’ empty net to give Navan a 5 – 1 win. Noah Carpenter added the other helper on Savignac’s empty net goal. Grad goaltender Jaeden Nelson stopped 27 of 28 shots in Navan’s second win of the national championship while Sudbury netminder Noah Metivier turned away 28 of 31 shots in the Cubs’ second straight loss in Oakville.
The (0-1) Cubs will now face the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s (1-1) Calgary Canucks on Monday, May 13th with a 4:00 p.m in Oakville while the (1-0) Grads will have a day off before meeting the Canucks at 4:00 p.m on Tuesday, May 14th.
