saultsports Photos: Erica Perreaux/Hockey Canada Images
CALGARY, Alta. – The Greater Sudbury Cubs saw Daks Klinkhammer and Lincoln Moore both tally twice as part of a 6-2 win over the Grande Prairie Storm (AJHL) Friday evening in Centennial Cup play, presented by Tim Hortons, at Max Bell Centre in Calgary.
Opening the scoring nearly 11 minutes into the proceedings, Greater Sudbury countered in transition in the neutral zone and saw Ben Harris fire a cross-ice pass over to Ryan Rubic, who entered the Grande Prairie zone down the left wing and fired a shot from the top of the circle that got through Storm starter Nicholas Jones.
A superb stop by Cubs’ netminder Karsen Chartier a couple of shifts later saw him deny Kaiden Bugera from close range to keep the NOJHL title holders in front.
Despite the Alberta Junior Hockey League finalists holding the edge in shots on goal, Chartier’s efforts kept his club in the lead into the first intermission.
In the second stanza, Greater Sudbury went ahead by a pair on an early man advantage opportunity.
On that tally, Noah Kohan took a feed from Alexandre Valade and muscled his way to the net and lifted an attempt over the pad of Jones at 2:26.
A point-blank save by Jones a few minutes later denied Lucas Signoretti to keep the score at 2-0.
Building on that, Grande Prairie cut into the deficit moments into a man advantage when Colin Doherty steered in a pass from Chayse Laurie.
Going to the power play once again, the Storm tied it when Alec Hall pumped in a one-timer off a backhand set-up by Doherty.
Countering quickly, the Cubs went back on top a half minute later thanks to Klinkhammer, who collected a loose puck in close of a Lucas Signoretti attempt, then spun and deposited a backhand at 9:15 for the eventual game-winner.
More from Klinkhammer saw him make it 4-2 deep in the frame as he powered his way out from the corner through a pair of defenders and wired one upstairs over the shoulder of Jones for his second of the session.
Third period action saw a solid cycle generate a fifth on the night for the Cubs as Nolan Newton and Samuel Assinewai combined to allow Moore to roof a shot from the left of the net.
Adding some insurance at 7:07, Moore added another as he knocked in a rebound to chase Jones, who was replaced by Storm back-up Keagin Kelln, following the evening’s final marker.
Chartier was solid throughout, finishing with 35 stops in the victory for Greater Sudbury, who had 22 shots on goal.
Earning player of the game honours were Klinkhammer and Doherty.
The Cubs are right back at it Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. ET as they take on the 0-0-1 Northern Manitoba Blizzard.
Games are streamed on a pay-per-view basis via HNLive.ca.
About The Author
