Photos: Voodooshockey.com
POWASSAN, Ont. – The Powassan Voodoos held off a battling Kirkland Lake Gold Miners side Friday before eventually prevailing 5-3 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at the Powassan Sportsplex.
An errant pass in the neutral zone helped Kirkland Lake collect the night’s first goal, late in the opening frame, that allowed Benjamin Armatage to go darting down the left wing where he ripped a sizzler over the glove of Powassan starter Daniel Dirracolo at 19:23.
It was all Voodoos in the middle stanza though as they scored four times to take command of the proceedings.
Chase Thompson began the outburst in the first minute as he batted in a rebound off a Reyth Smith shot from the slot.
Going ahead, via the power play at 4:06, Mathieu MacMillan found himself free to the right of the net and snapped one in off of Gold Miners’ goalkeeper Connor Davis from a sharp angle.
Continuing to press, the Voodoos’ Nick Beatty chipped in his first NOJHL goal, a minute and a half later, by finishing off a Caden Dubreuil pass in close, on a mini two-on-one.
Capping off the outburst in the session, Smith skated around the Kirkland Lake net, along the side wall and sent a perfect pass across to Owen Smetham, coming in the back door, who made no mistake with his opportunity.
The Gold Miners got one of those back five minutes into the third, while on a man advantage, compliments of an Noah Woodard one-time blast from the left circle, off a nice cross-ice set-up from Aidan Beavan.
Continuing to push, the visitors added another with 9:06 to play as a diving Ryan Greco put the puck up to Riley Babich, who ripped it past Dirracolo.
Powassan did hold on to eventually prevail, needing a late empty netter off the stick of Rhys Smetham, to finalize the home ice triumph.
The win sees the Voodoos move to 12-4-0-1 while the Gold Miners battled hard right to the end despite falling to 4-11-2-1 in suffering a close setback in the debut of new head coach Kyle Adams.
