Jason La Rose
The Greater Sudbury Cubs want to make sure the third time is the charm.
The Cubs made it three championships in as many years in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL), booking a third trip to the Centennial Cup, presented by Tim Hortons.
And they won’t be short on experience; the roster includes 14 players who played a year ago in Calgary and four—Noah Kohan, Kaedyn Long, Nolan Newton and Mateo Signoretti—who were part of the first title team two years ago in Oakville.
In 2024, Sudbury finished 1-3 in preliminary-round play and missed out on the playoffs. Last year, it went 2-2 and reached the quarterfinals, falling to the Melfort Mustangs.
Now the Cubs come to Summerside as arguably the hottest of the 10 teams, winners of their last 14 games—including a perfect 12-0 run through the NOJHL playoffs.
And their postseason games weren’t particularly close; Sudbury outscored its opponents by 43 goals (70-27), winning eight games by at least three goals (the other four were one-goal contests, including two—both of them series-clinchers—decided in overtime).
The duo of Briir Long (10-18—28 in 11 GP) and Mason Walker (9-18—27 in 12 GP) did the heavy lifting on offence in the playoffs, while Iain Wintle turned in a 2.05 goals-against average and .934 save percentage while going perfect in his 10 starts.
Over the last three seasons, the Cubs are a combined 126-26-4-4 in the NOJHL during the regular season and have scored 835 goals—an average of 5.15 per game. They’re almost as prolific in the postseason, averaging 4.70 goals per game (202 in 43 games) while going 36-7.
Now they want to go where very few NOJHL teams have gone; just twice have teams from the league reached at least the semifinals at the Centennial Cup—the Rayside Balfour Sabrecats, who got to the final in 2000, and the Thunderbirds, who were semifinalists in 2012.
HOW THEY GOT TO SUMMERSIDE
Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Quarterfinal: defeated Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 4-0 (9-1, 6-1, 2-1, 10-3) Semifinal: defeated Soo Eagles 4-0 (5-1, 9-6, 6-3, 4-3 OT) Final: defeated Timmins Rock 4-0 (9-3, 4-3, 3-0, 3-2 OT)
REGULAR SEASON
Record (W-L-T-OTL): 39-8-3-2 (1st in NOJHL) Goals for: 298 (1st in NOJHL) Goals against: 124 (1st in NOJHL) Power play: 97 for 252 (38.5% – 1st in NOJHL) Penalty killing: 180 of 216 (83.3% – 2nd in NOJHL) Longest winning streak: 8 (Jan. 29-Feb. 28)
Top 3 scorers: • Nolan Newton (37G 54A 91P – 2nd in NOJHL) • Mason Walker (33G 55A 88P – 3rd in NOJHL) • Owen King (44G 30A 74P – 6th in NOJHL)
PLAYOFFS
Record: 12-0 Goals for: 70 Goals against: 27 Power play: 17 for 60 (28.3%) Penalty killing: 41 of 51 (80.4%) Top 3 scorers: • Briir Long (10G 18A 28P) • Mason Walker (9G 18A 27P) • Daks Klinkhammer (10G 9A 19P)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
2024 – Greater Sudbury Cubs | 8th place | 1-3 | 11GF 18GA 2025 – Greater Sudbury Cubs | 6th place | 2-3 | 14GF 21GA
COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY COMMITMENTS
Daks Klinkhammer – Ontario Tech University (2026-27) Iain Wintle – University of Guelph (2026-27)
CJHL TOP 20 RANKINGS
Sept. 29 – not ranked Oct. 6 – not ranked Oct. 13 – not ranked Oct. 20 – not ranked Oct. 27 – not ranked Nov. 3 – Honourable Mention Nov. 10 – not ranked Nov. 17 – Honourable Mention Nov. 24 – 14th Dec. 1 – 16th Dec. 8 – 15th Dec. 15 – 15th Dec. 22 – 16th Jan. 5 – 16th Jan. 12 – 15th Jan. 19 – 15th Jan. 26 – 12th Feb. 2 – 12th Feb. 9 – 9th Feb. 16 – 7th Feb. 23 – 7th March 2 – 7th March 9 – 7th