Photos: Turnbull’s Northern Photography
IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. – A Lucas Signoretti marker, five and half minutes into the third period, proved to be the game-winner as the Greater Sudbury Cubs skated to a narrow 4-3 victory over the Iroquois Falls Storm Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at Jus Jordan Arena.
A well-played opening 20 minutes went scoreless as the two sides went to their respective dressing rooms still in search of the night’s opening marker.
In the second stanza, Greater Sudbury broke the deadlock early when Ryan Rubic chased down a puck deep in the Iroquois Falls end and put a play into the slot where Eric Navarro snagged it and whipped a shot over the blocker of Storm starter Justin Sullivan to collect his first NOJHL marker.
The Storm countered with an equalizer near the midway mark of the match-up when Alexandre St. Pierre joined the league’s first-goal club as he redirected in a Benjamin Coatham left point blast past Cubs’ netminder Matthew Vahramian.
Retaking the lead, the visitors Mason Walker made a crafty cross-ice pass across to Jacob Signoretti, who promptly whipped in his initial NOJHL marker from the right side.
Coming right back, Iroquois Falls drew level once again thanks to Landon Trethewey, who neatly batted in a backhand out of mid-air off a rebound of a Brayden Hindman shot from up high.
The Storm then took the lead at 17:57 as Michael Leech had a couple of cracks in close before jamming one in while battling in front.
Back and forth they went with Greater Sudbury knotting the affair at 3-3 before the second intermission as defenceman Brady Bouchard took a feed from Nate Lazarus and deposited a wrister from the top of the right circle.
Heading to the third, last season’s NOJHL MVP notched the decider as Signoretti chopped in a bouncing puck off a Samuel Assinewai attempt towards the target.
Pushing hard to try and send it to overtime, Iroquois Falls got Sullivan out late for an extra attacker, but the guests held firm to pick-up the win.
The Storm are right back it Sunday as they host Powassan at 2 p.m. while the Cubs next action will be Thursday as Espanola pays a visit to Greater Sudbury in a 7:05 p.m. start.
