In an East division match – up, the third place Powassan Voodoos hosted the fourth place Kirkland Lake Gold Miners on December 19th at the Powassan Sportsplex in a 7:30 p.m Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League start.
At 8:06 of the first period, Alexi Rivet sank the opening goal for Powassan to give the Voodoos a 1 – 0 lead with Kyle Moore and Nathaniel McLeod adding the assists. Daniel Walker gave the Voodoos a 2 – 0 lead at 1:15 of the second with Nick Grose and Dan Golba setting up Walker on the goal behind Kirkland Lake’s goaltender Victor-Olivier Courchesne.
On a Gold Miner power play at 14:47 of the second, Marc – Antoine Arseneau sunk his 18th of the season to bring Kirkland Lake within one. Blake Anderson and Dalton Anderson drew the helpers on Arseneau’s power play goal behind Powassan’s netminder Garrett Forrest. On a Kirkland Lake unassisted goal, Gold Miner Brett Ouderkirk fires his 16th of the season behind Voodoo netminder Mario Cavaliere. With 6:39 left in the game, Arseneau sinks his second of the contest to give the Gold Miners a 3 – 2 win over Powassan.
Heading into the Christmas break, the Gold Miners sit in fourth place overall in the NOJHL only one point behind the Voodoos. Kirkland Lake has played a total of 33 games to date while Powassan has three games in hand entering the second half of the NOJHL season.
Kirkland Lake’s next six games will be on home ice at the Joe Mavrinac Complex when they open the month of January with the Iroquois Falls Eskimos in town on the 8th and the league leading Soo Thunderbirds on the 9th.
