Now this looks a lot more familiar.

Extending their current unbeaten streak to eight games, the Greater Sudbury Cubs have continued to climb the NOJHL (Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League) standings leaderboard and now find themselves in second place, six points back of the Hearst Lumberjacks with two games in hand.

The Cubs opened November as they closed out October, with another win, silencing the French River Rapids 7-1 in Noelville on Saturday as Daks Klinkhammer (2G+1A), Owen King (1G+2A) and Alex Valade (1G+2A) all enjoyed three point outings.

Jacob Signoretti, Caden Dubreuil and Nolan Newton rounded out the goal scoring for the winners while Jeremy Clark spoiled the shutout bid of Sudbury netminder Matthew Vahramian, netting a third period power play marker.

The Thursday tilt at home proved to be far more of a challenge as the Cubs overcame a 2-1 deficit entering the third period of play, burying four goals in a span of 5:38 to pull away from the Soo Thunderbirds, downing the visitors 5-2.

The T-Birds sandwiched second period snipes from Deven Jones-Macdonald and Drew Christian around a counter-strike from Noah Kohan, putting themselves in good shape heading into the final 20 minutes of play.

But the dam burst when Noah Kohan netted his second of the game with just under eight minutes remaining and before you knew it, tallies by Caden Dubreuil, Daks Klinkhammer and Owen King had put this contest to bed as netminder Mateo Beites earned the win with a 20-save effort.

"I think we honestly just had to continue to push forward," noted high-scoring Sudbury forward Nolan Newton, who threaded a seeing-eye pass on the first Kohan goal and added a secondary assist on the second.

"We doubled their shots and were unlucky at times. We just had to get one through this goalie," Newton added, with a tip of the hat to Soo goalie Ryan Hicks who finished with 50 saves on the night, including 36 in the first two periods alone.

With 26 points in 15 games since his return to Sudbury, Newton is now piling on to some very impressive NOJHL career stats - which kind of explain why his focus is elsewhere when it comes to expanding his skill-set.

"I'm more of an offensive player so working on that defensive side of the game to get to the next level and be effective, that's really something I have been priding myself on this year," said Newton.

And for as much as the Cubs have seen plenty of turnover this past off-season after defending their NOJHL title, Newton contends there are things that remain very consistent, year over year.

"It's obviously different guys than in the past but the culture stays the same," he stated. "The guys that come here want to be part of that culture."

With the Big Nickel Hockey Tournament in town this week, the Cubs will make the trek west for a pair of road games, battling the Espanola Paper Kings on Friday and then heading a little further in visiting the Soo Eagles on Saturday in Michigan.