The final game in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Showcase last night didn’t go the way the Greater Sudbury Cubs hoped.
The Showcase brings together all 11 NOJHL clubs, plus a team from St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, to round out a 12-team field, giving fans a chance to see all NOJHL squads in action. The event ran Oct. 7-8 at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex in the South End.
In last night’s Showcase finale, a two-goal evening for Caleb Dawson helped Powassan to a 6-2 over the Cubs.
“Powassan got on the board first, six minutes into the match-up, via the power play, when Ryan Saginaw jammed in a loose puck that arrived off a Braeden Begley shot from the point past Greater Sudbury goaltender Matthew Vahramian,” the game report states.
A couple of shifts later, the Voodoos made it 2-0 thanks to Jax Pereira taking a cruise along the left wing and blasting a high shot over Vahramian’s blocker.
“Needing just 10 seconds to get one back in the middle stanza, a Powassan defenceman tried to rim the puck around his own net down low, but it clipped off the stick of the Cubs’ Eidan Macartney and sailed past a surprised goalkeeper, Cole Vreugdenhil,” the report states.
Powassan extended their lead to 3-1 at 4:36 of the second after Dawson picked up a rebound off a Marcus Kratz shot and put the puck in the net.
Still in the second, Voodoos’ defenceman Jackson Marnell fired a shot from the left point that somehow sailed through a crowd, beating a screened Vahramian for Marnell’s first NOJHL goal.
The Cubs pulled Vahramian at this point and put backup netminder Mateo Beites in goal.
Despite the change, the Voodoos would score again before the period ended, making it a 5-1 game off a Cayden Kowal goal that saw him put a play in front from behind the net, with the puck somehow banking in past Beites.
“Third period action saw the Voodoos notch another man advantage effort when Begley pumped a wrister from up high that was neatly redirected in by Dawson situated at the top of the crease.”
Late in the third, the Cubs would score their final goal after Noah Kohan tapped in a one-timer off a feed from Daks Klinkhammer.
The Showcase ended with Powassan securing a 2-0 record, while the Cubs finished up with a record of 1-1.
The Cubs are back in action at home tonight when they welcome the Hearst Lumberjacks to Countryside arena.