SUDBURY – Cray Roberge scored three times in his Sudbury Nickel Barons debut to help power his new club to 4-2 victory over the Mattawa Blackhawks Wednesday evening in the 2014-15 Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League season opener at McClelland Arena.
Roberge, who represented the NOJHL at last year’s Canadian Junior Hockey League prospects games in Nova Scotia, found the back of the net twice in the opening 20 minutes on Mattawa starter Josh Horner connecting first at 3:27 followed by another eight minutes later.
The visiting Blackhawks found their way back into the contest early in the second session as Tyler Broderson beat Sudbury’s Jessie Morin 90 seconds into the frame for the first goal in Mattawa history.
It stayed that way until 1:09 of the third as Jimmy Roy notched his first of the campaign for Sudbury to put the home team up a pair once again.
Special teams allowed Mattawa to pull back to within one as Kyle Baril picked up his second assist of the night feeding Alex Hulford for a power play marker at 6:29 to make it 3-2.
Roberge iced it however in the late going as he capped off his three-tally performance to round out the night’s scoring and help the Nickel Barons come away victorious on opening night.
Morin was solid in picking up the win in net for Sudbury as he turned aside 33 of the 35 shots fired his way.
Horner, for his part, kept his side in it making 41 stops in a losing cause for Mattawa.
League play resumes Thursday evening as the Cochrane Crunch take to the ice in the first-ever game as they host Mattawa in a 7:30 p.m. start at the Tim Horton Event Centre
