The Timmins Rock and Greater Sudbury Cubs are headed to the Copeland Cup – McNamara Trophy final after each sweeping their respective Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League semifinal opponents in four straight games.
Greater Sudbury punched their ticket first, Tuesday, when Noah Aboflan’s power-play blast three minutes into overtime gave the Cubs a dramatic 4-3 victory over the Soo Eagles in Game 4 of their semifinal at Pullar Stadium. A night later, Kaeden McArthur collected a pair of goals — including his league-leading third game-winner of the playoffs — as the Rock closed out the Hearst Lumberjacks 5-1 before close to 1,200 fans at McIntyre Arena.
It marks Greater Sudbury’s third straight trip to the NOJHL championship series, while Timmins advances on the strength of a wire-to-wire sweep that was never seriously in doubt.
Greater Sudbury 4, Soo Eagles 3 (OT)
The Cubs got off to a strong start at Pullar Stadium, with Mateo Signoretti shovelling a backhand to the crease that goaltender Dalton Hoornstra couldn’t control, allowing Grant Booth to snap in his second of the playoffs at 13:01 of the first period. Mason Walker collected the second assist on the play, extending his point streak to all eight of Greater Sudbury’s postseason contests.
Owen King quickly doubled the lead, converting a slot pass from Daks Klinkhammer to make it 2-0. The Eagles answered moments later, however, as Bradyn Walsh chipped the puck ahead along the boards, raced down the right wing and set up Brendan Boberg, who steered it past Greater Sudbury goaltender Matthew Vahramian to cut the deficit in half.
The Cubs went back up by two at 6:14 of the second when Caden Dubreuil’s shot from the left side deflected off Klinkhammer and past Hoornstra — prompting Sault Ste. Marie to make a goaltending change, bringing in Jace Knoerle. Before the period was out, Soo defenceman C.J. Zaharis trimmed it back to one with a point shot that deflected through Vahramian’s pads.
The Eagles levelled it in the third when Gabriel Clark lifted one from distance through a trio of defenders and into the top left corner, sending the game to overtime. Three minutes into the extra frame, with Greater Sudbury skating on the power play, Klinkhammer set up Aboflan in the left circle and he blasted it past Knoerle to end it.
Timmins 5, Hearst 1
The Rock wasted little time putting the Lumberjacks away. Affiliate Ian Lachance, making his playoff debut, opened the scoring at 4:22 of the first period, converting a feed from Evan Katic behind the net to snap one past goaltender Jack Helkie.
McArthur made it 2-0 midway through the frame, collecting a puck set up by Maxx Hamelin and carrying it over the blueline before lifting a shot from between the circles that clipped off Helkie’s glove and dropped in. Ryan Armitage then capped a crisp three-way passing play with Nolan Masson and Thomas Beard at 12:15, sending Timmins to the intermission up 3-0 and prompting Hearst to replace Helkie with backup William Stonehouse.
The Rock kept coming in the second. McArthur broke in on a two-on-one and slid a pass to Hamelin, whose return attempt glanced off McArthur’s skate and into the open corner — McArthur’s second of the night and the game-winner, his third such marker of the postseason. Masson then swatted home a rebound off an Ashton Beriana attempt just over a minute later to make it 5-0.
Hugo Allard got Hearst on the board four minutes into the third, taking a feed from Julien Trudel, cutting left and lifting a backhand at close range past Frédéric Cousineau. It was all the Lumberjacks would manage.