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Photos: Caleigh Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – A four-goal night by Daks Klinkhammer of the Greater Sudbury Cubs was more than enough to send his side to a 9-2 victory over French River Rapids Thursday evening in a chippy affair at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
With the victory, Greater Sudbury collected their 16th consecutive Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League win.
A fortunate deflection helped the Cubs strike first when Jacob Signoretti put an attempt towards the target from the left point that clipped off the stick of a Rapids defender and eluded French River starter Zachary Burleigh, who was making his NOJHL debut.
Adding another while shorthanded, Klinkhammer snagged a bouncing puck at his own blueline and raced in on a breakaway from distance before lifting his chance high glove-side, five minutes in.
Greater Sudbury kept coming and saw Noah Kohan connect on a man advantage as he came down the left wing, then drove hard to the net where he tucked in a backhand.
The goal gives Kohan points in 10 straight outings, while Samuel Assinewai and Lucas Signoretti collected assists on the play, to extend point streaks to 17 and 12 respectively.
Klinkhammer then steered in his second of the session, which saw Burleigh replaced by back-up Nicholas Tarantella at 14:03.
Heading to the middle frame, Burleigh went back in net for the visitors.
However, Klinkhammer hit a hat trick on an early power play as he elevated in a backhand from close range.
Continuing to press, the home side added a sixth on the night when Lucas Signoretti stuffed in his NOJHL-leading 36th goal off a feed from Assinewai.
A fourth for Klinkhammer came 30 seconds into the final frame as he spun in the slot and buried a low shot into the bottom left corner.
French River eventually solved the Cubs’ Noah Beaulne when Sergy Suschenko fired a nice pass across to Hunter Vilanez, on an odd-man rush, who promptly whipped in his team-best 16th of the season.
Returning to the Greater Sudbury line-up for the first time since early November, Nate Lazerus added to the onslaught when he lobbed one in from centre ice that took a wild hop off the ice and skipped past Burleigh.
Adding to the romp, Kohan knocked in his second of the night as he whipped in an attempt from between the circles.
Suschenko then picked up his first goal of the season during a Rapids power play as he blasted a one-timer by Beaulne from the right circle off a Dominic Bzdyl set-up to round out the scoring.
The result sees the first place Cubs improve to 31-2-1-1 overall and with the loss, the Rapids fell to 12-19-1-2.
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