Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
After a game two loss in Oakville, Ontario to the Central Canada Hockey League Navan Grads on Sunday, May 12th at the 2024 Centennial Cup Junior ‘A’ National Championships, the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (0-2) Sudbury Cubs returned to action for a late afternoon matinee on Monday, May 13th against the Alberta Junior Hockey League (1-1) Calgary Canucks.
At 3:13 of the opening period, Calgary’s Billy Hooson sends a pass from the right corner to Canuck defenseman Gavin Schmidt, Schmidt rifles a shot along the ice from the right blueline thorough traffic to find the back of the Cubs’ net with just the fifth shot of the game over Sudbury netminder Noah Metivier catcher to give the AJHL champions a 1 – 0 lead. Calgary defenseman Chris Kobelka floats a wrist shot through traffic from just inside the centre of the Cubs’ blueline to give the Canucks a 2 – 0 lead over Sudbury netminder Noah Metivier’s right shoulder at 5:05 of the third. Ty Hipkin and Julien Gervais notched the contributors on Kobelka’s goal. With both teams four on four serving penalties, Nolan Newton skates coast to coast down the left side of the ice to skate behind the Canucks net to slide Sudbury’s first under Calgary goaltender Julian Molinaro’s right pad to pull the Cubs within one ar 11:04 of the third, unassisted. Julien Gervais wins the faceoff to the left of Sudbury’s net to send a cross crease pass to Ty Hipkin at 12:52 of the third to give Calgary a 3 – 1 lead under Cub netminder Noah Metivier’s right pad. With a scramble in front of the Canucks net and Julian Molinaro sprawled across his crease, unassisted Samuel Assinewai lifted the Cubs second goal over the sprawled Molinaro to close the gap to one at the 17:18 of third. Calgary goaltender Julian Molinaro stopped 28 of 30 shots in the 3- 2 win while the Sudbury netminder Noah Metivier turned away 36 of 29 shots in the 3 – 2 Cubs loss.
Next game in Oakville for the Cubs will be on Wednesday, May 15th when they face the Collège Français de Longueuil of the Ligue de Hockey Junior du Québec with a 12:00 p.m contest while the Canucks take their 0-0 win/loss into Tuesday, May 14th matchup against the Central Canada Hockey League’s (2-0) Navan Grads. With the win for the Canucks, the AJHL champions will qualify for the 2024 Centennial Cup quarter-finals while loss will eliminate the Cubs chances of qualifying for a quarter-final appearance.
