Photos: Caleigh Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – The Greater Sudbury Cubs saw Samuel Assinewai register his second career hat trick as part of a 6-2 victory over the Iroquois Falls Storm Thursday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Picking up the initial man advantage opportunity of the night, Greater Sudbury wasted little in converting on it as Lucas Signoretti hammered in a Mason Chitaroni cross-ice feed past Storm starter
Maverick Fletcher, 3:18 in.
The goal also ran a personal point-streak to six in succession.
While the Cubs generated most of the chances, the remainder of the first period, as well as much of the middle stanza, the efforts of Fletcher kept his side in it.
The home side would eventually add to their lead at 15:29 of the second stanza, when a long pass up ice by Jacob Signoretti generated a two-on-one where Assinewai sent a feed over to Lucas Signoretti, who swatted in his second of the evening.
With the marker, Signoretti now has reached the 25-goal plateau for a third season in a row.
On a night where Assinewai extended a point streak to 11 in a row, he made it 3-0 after snagging a loose puck in the neutral zone and darting in where he was initially stopped, but was quick to chip in the rebound at 18:05.
Coming out with a purpose in the final frame, Iroquois Falls got on the board a couple of minutes into the session.
It began with a nice rush into the Greater Sudbury zone by Jordan Mayo, then a crisp pass to Jack Jarvis, who pumped a second attempt from the right side under netminder Stephen Toltl.
Countering, Chitaroni added some insurance for the hosts as he dashed up-ice and proceeded to wire a wrister past Fletcher, from up high, with 8:19 to go.
Assinewai then clicked on a power play by wheeling down the right wing, before driving into the slot, and sizzling in his second of the night.
The Storm did get another, off a turnover, that led to Alexandre St. Pierre ripping a shot over the glove of Toltl from between the circles.
However, Assinewai capped off the result with his third of the evening as he stuffed in a Daks Klinkhammer play through the crease, with the latter etching his name of the game sheet for a eighth-straight outing.
With the result, Toltl wins his third straight start since joining the Cubs back in November, while helping them improve to a league-best 23-2-1-1.
In defeat, the Storm slipped to 9-16-0-1.
Both teams play again Friday as Iroquois Falls meets Elliot Lake in Massey at 7 p.m., while Greater Sudbury heads to Kirkland Lake to take on the Gold Miners at 7:30 p.m.
