Cubs go 0-2
Navan knocks off Greater Sudbury in Centennial Cup play, Sunday
Colin MacDougall opened the scoring, then added a later assist, to help the Navan Grads (CCHL) knock off the Greater Sudbury Cubs 5-1 Sunday in Day 4 action at the Centennial Cup, presented by Tim Hortons, at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.
Navan gained the upper hand, 3:15 into the proceedings, as MacDougall powered his way out from the end boards and while driving along the goal line, left-to-right through the crease, reached across and tucked the puck past the outstretched pad of Greater Sudbury goaltender Noah Metivier.
Some sustained pressure by the Cubs midway through the first period, presented a couple of opportunities to tie it, but solid in-close stops by Grads’ starter Jaeden Nelson stymied Marshall McCharles and Chris Innes.
The NOJHL title holders continued to generate chances, including a Hudson Chitaroni sizzler from the slot that rang off the cross bar and bounced harmlessly wide.
Moving to the middle stanza, a point-blank Nelson save on Samuel Assinewai early kept the Cubs off the board.
Countering, Navan went up by a pair at 3:08 as Gabriel Crete wheeled around the net and put a play in front that was steered in by Maximus Crete.
Cutting into the deficit, Assinewai collected a turnover in the Grads’ zone, then spun and fed McCharles driving down the slot where he took the pass and ripped it into the top left-hand corner at 11:37.
The Central Canada Hockey League-winners had another tally disallowed deep in the period, after it was deemed by the officials that the play should have been halted on an icing call.
Heading to the third, a couple of man advantage chances could not be capitalized early on as the Cubs looked for an equalizer.
Connecting on a power play of their own, Navan picked up some insurance with 8:45 to go when defenceman Matthew Roy snapped an attempt from the top of the right circle that sailed through a maze and eluded a screened Metivier.
Getting their goalie out with three and a half minutes remaining, and on a man advantage, Greater Sudbury looked to pull closer, however the Grads’ Nicholas Paone secured the result with a long-range empty netter from deep in his own territory.
They then sealed the outcome with another empty-net effort in the final minutes, deposited by Devon Savignac, to round out the scoring.
Collecting player of the game nods for the respective clubs were McCharles and Nelson.
Up next for the Cubs (0-2) will be a Monday match-up against the 1-1 Calgary Canucks (AJHL), which gets underway at 4 p.m., back in Oakville.
