saultsports Photos: Cassy Seguin
FRENCH RIVER – Mason Chitaroni’s first career hat trick and the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League-leading fourth shutout of the season by Noah Beaulne saw the Greater Sudbury Cubs stymie the French River Rapids 6-0 Saturday at Noelville Arena.
Needing just 40 seconds to take the lead in the contest, Greater Sudbury captain Chitaroni jumped into a rush up-ice and pumped in the rebound off a Noah Kohan attempt in beating French River’s Nicholas Tarantella.
Collecting the second assist on the play was Samuel Assinewai, who now has earned at least one point in each of his past 23 games played.
Going up by a pair during a man advantage, Nolan Newton steered in a feed in front made by Lucas Signoretti from the left circle.
The tally sees Newton have a point in each of his previous 23 contests competed in, which dates back to last season.
Banging in two more in the middle frame, the Cubs took a four-goal cushion into the second intermission.
Another by Chitaroni made it 3-0 at 16:52 when he whipped one in through traffic from up top.
Greater Sudbury’s Ben Harris then connected a couple of shifts later by powering his way up-ice, then getting around a defender and ripping in a shot from the right side.
In the final period, the Cubs put the game out of reach thanks to a power play goal off the stick of Assinewai, who sent a sizzler past Tarantella from the left face-off dot.
Chitaroni then capped off the result by pumping one through a crowd from the left point in the late going, to round out the scoring.
The shutout was the second-straight for front-running Greater Sudbury, who have now not allowed a goal-against in their past 128 minutes and 17 seconds of game action.
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