Garden River’s Lincoln Moore Sinks Two Goals in the NOJHL Cubs Win at the 2025 National Championships -

The AJHL’s Grande Prairie Storm and the NOJHL’s Greater Sudbury Cubs faced off in Calgary, Alberta on Friday, May 9th, to kick off their campaigns at the 2025 Centennial Cup national championships. This opening matchup marked the first game of the tournament for both teams, each entering with strong playoff momentum. The Storm arrived in Calgary after posting an (8-4) record in the AJHL postseason, while the Cubs made their way to the national stage with an impressive (12-3) run through the NOJHL playoffs. Both clubs hit the ice with high expectations as they began their pursuit of junior hockey supremacy in Canada.

The Sudbury Cubs opened their 2025 Centennial Cup campaign in dominant fashion on Friday evening, defeating the Grande Prairie Storm 6–2 in an action-packed showdown that showcased offensive firepower and defensive resolve.
The Cubs set the tone early in the first period. At 10:48, Ryan Rubic opened the scoring with a blistering snapshot from the top of the right faceoff circle, beating Storm goaltender Nick Jones cleanly to give Sudbury a 1–0 lead. Ben Harris and Lucas Antonioni assisted on Rubic’s first goal of the tournament.

Sudbury extended their lead just 2:26 into the second period on a powerplay. Amid a flurry of activity in front of the Storm crease, Noah Kohan buried a low shot under Jones’ left arm to make it 2–0. Daks Klinkhammer and Nolan Newton picked up the assists on Kohan’s tally.

Grande Prairie battled back midway through the period. Colin Doherty finished a cross-ice pass from Chayse Laurie at 6:19, cutting the lead to 2–1 with Kaiden Bugera also earning an assist. Less than three minutes later, Doherty set up Alec Hall with a crafty backhand pass from between the circles, and Hall made no mistake, tying the game 2–2 at 8:45. Laurie earned his second assist of the game on the play.

But the Cubs responded with resilience and fire. On another powerplay at 10:45, Klinkhammer restored Sudbury’s lead with a slick backhander in tight, assisted by Lucas Signoretti. Then, with 2:35 left in the frame, Klinkhammer struck again — weaving through two Grande Prairie defenders and ripping a wrist shot top shelf to extend Sudbury’s lead to 4–2. Kohan added the lone assist, his second point of the night.

Sudbury continued to press in the third period. At 5:48, Sam Assinewai delivered a heads-up backhand feed from behind the goal line to Lincoln Moore, who rifled a shot just under the crossbar to make it 5–2. Moore wasn’t finished — less than two minutes later, he pounced on a rebound from Signoretti and buried his second goal of the game, sealing a 6–2 victory for the NOJHL champions.

In net, Sudbury’s Karsen Chartier was stellar, turning aside 35 of 37 shots for the win. On the opposite end, Grande Prairie’s tandem of Nick Jones and Keagin Kellin combined to stop 16 of 22 shots.

The win gives the Cubs a strong start to their national championship bid, and they’ll look to build on the momentum in their next matchup.

The (1-0) Cubs will now face the (0-0-1) Northern Manitoba Blizzard of the MJHL on Saturday, May 10th at the national championships with a 7:30 p.m (MST) puck drop.