POWASSAN, Ont. – Gregory Trudeau-Paquet picked up his fourth career hat trick and his ninth Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League game-winning goal as the Powassan Voodoos defeated the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 6-4 Tuesday evening in the opener of a home-and-home set at the Powassan Sportsplex.
It started out all Voodoos, as they skated out to a 3-0 lead before the contest was 16 minutes old on even strength efforts from Trudeau-Paquet and affiliate Nathaniel Lalonde, who notched his first NOJHL goal, while Brett Shawan struck shorthanded.
Answering back quickly, Kirkland Lake countered by scoring three of their own, which came in a minute and a half span, to knot the affair at 3-3 as Nick Wagner, Casey Gerstein and Camille Marcoux all found the back of the net in rapid succession.
The Gold Miners then took the lead 14:35 into the middle stanza when Connor Van Weelie converted on a man advantage opportunity.
Trudeau-Paquet matched that by tying things up just over a minute later to knot the affair at 4-4 after two periods of play.
In the third, Trudeau-Paquet bagged the difference maker just 54 seconds in as Powassan regained the lead for good as his 27th goal of the campaign matched a career season-high.
Joe Whittet then added some insurance at 2:14 as he scored on the power play, in what proved to be the evening’s final offensive effort.
Parker Bowman dished out three assists to aid the Voodoos cause.
Powassan out shot Kirkland Lake 30-29 on the night with Christian Cicigoi getting the win while Kohl Reddy suffered the defeat.
The two teams will meet again Wednesday night in Kirkland Lake in a 7:30 p.m. start at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
