Sudbury Cubs off to finals
Back to back playoff series conquests of the Soo Thunderbirds and Blind River Beavers have the Sudbury Cubs headed to the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League championship series.
The Cubs, who finished in second place in the West Division of the NOJHL during the regular season, sidelined the no. 3 seed Soo Thunderbirds in six games in the opening round of the playoffs before upending the top seed Blind River Beavers in five games in the second round.
Sudbury will face either the Powassan Voodoos or Timmins Rock from the East Division in the NOJHL finals.
Cubs associate coach and general manager Dave Clancy, a crusty, grizzled veteran of many years in the NOJHL, is ecstatic to be going to the league finals.
“We are extremely excited about being in the finals of the NOJHL championship this season,” Clancy relayed to Hockey News North. “The Cubs organization, right from our ownership, management, coaches, players and all our volunteers and great fans have given their full support for this team to have the success it is enjoying.”
Clancy called the two playoff triumphs for Sudbury to date “a battle between extremely tough teams. Both the Soo and Blind River are well coached and are difficult opponents to play back to back against. Our players really bought into what the coaching staff have been working with them on and paying attention to detail in all three zones of the ice.”
Goalie Noah Metivier has played in all 11 playoff games for Sudbury to date and the Sault Ste. Marie native has an 8-3 record to go with a 1.82 goals against average, .924 save percentage and two shutouts.
Offensively, Nolan Newton is the Cubs playoff scoring leader with nine goals, six assists, 15 points. Next up is 16-year old rookie sensation Hudson Chitaroni — a top prospect of the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League — with six goals, seven assists, 13 points. Then it is Oliver Smith with five goals, six assists, 11 points and defenseman Mason Chitaroni with 11 points, all of them assists.
Notably, the Chitaroni brothers, like Metivier, are all products of the Sault Ste. Marie AAA minor hockey system.