Greater Sudbury Cubs to face Melfort Mustangs in Centennial Cup quarter-final
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The Greater Sudbury Cubs will open the Centennial Cup playoff round with a quarter-final tilt against the Melfort Mustangs at the Max Bell Centre in Calgary on Friday at 6 p.m. ET.
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Head coach Darryl Moxam and company defeated the Kam River Fighting Walleye on Wednesday became the first NOJHL representatives since 2012 to advance past the preliminary round of the national junior A hockey championship.
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Greater Sudbury finished third in Group A with a record of 2-2, opening the tourney with a win over the Grande Prairie Storm, 6-2, then suffering losses to the Northern Manitoba Blizzard, 6-3, and Trenton Golden Hawks, 5-2, before bouncing back to edge the Walleye, 2-1.
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'We had a really good second period, maybe the best one of the year last game (against Trenton), and I thought we carried it over to the first period today,' Moxam said after the win over Kam River. 'I thought their goalie played phenomenal. We stayed calm and composed, because we were pressing a little bit in the first and I thought we could have been up a couple of goals. They found their legs in the second and it was a dead-even hockey game from there. We were fortunate enough to capitalize on some power-play opportunities, because we haven't exactly been rolling on the power play this week. At the end of the game, it was up for anybody. I thought both goalies gave both teams a chance to win and it was a heck of a hockey game.'
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Both Greater Sudbury and Melfort are back-to-back Centennial Cup entrants, the latter as champion in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. The Mustangs finished second in Group B this year with two regulation wins, an overtime victory and a loss.
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Lincoln Moore paced the Cubs offensively in round-robin play with seven points, including a team-best five tallies. His goal total was third best in a 10-team field.
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Greater Sudbury's Nolan Newton had six points, including a goal and five assists, while Samuel Assinewai had five assists and Lucas Signoretti four helpers.
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Logan Belton had six points and Ashton Hutchinson five for the Mustangs.
Cubs goaltender Karsen Chartier had a save percentage of .898 in four appearances, while Mustangs netminder Kristian Coombs sported a .915 in three outings.
Northern Manitoba will meet the Rockland Nationals in Friday's other quarter-final at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Earning byes directly to Saturday's semifinals were Trenton and the host Calgary Canucks, who finished in top spot in each of the two groups.
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