NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, March 22, 2015
Voodoos eliminate defending champion Gold Miners
POWASSAN – There will be a new champion in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League in 2015 as the upstart Powassan Voodoos knocked off the defending title holders, the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners, 6-3 Sunday in Game 6 of their East Division semifinal held at the Powassan Sportsplex.
With the victory, Powassan takes the best-of-seven set 4-2 and will now advance to take on the Cochrane Crunch in the division final. The schedule for that series will be announced once it is finalized.
Facing a must-win to keep their season going, Kirkland Lake got off to a great start scoring 45 seconds into the contest as Connor Thie, making his series debut, notched his first of the playoffs.
Powassan battled back and tacked on three tallies in a 10-minute span to go up 3-1 after one period of play on a pair of Jake Staples markers sandwiched around one by Kyle Moore.
Moore added another 11:46 into the middle session only to see Thie pick up his second of the night at 15:25 to make it a 4-2 game after 40 minutes.
Nathaniel McLeod put the Voodoos up three early in the third before Joel Fortin brought the visitors closer with just over 15 minutes remaining in regulation.
Kirkland Lake pulled goaltender Devon Debastos, who entered the contest after the fifth goal by the home side, in favour of an extra attacker in the late going, but Powassan’s Michael Silveri capped off the series upset with an empty netter with 33 seconds left to finish things off.
Silveri also had two assists on the night as did Steven Babin for the Gold Miners.
Matt Young made 26 saves to record the win for the Voodoos as he improved to 6-2 in the playoffs.
Erickson suffered the loss allowing five against on 16 shots in just under 42 minutes of work for Kirkland Lake while Devon Debastos stopped all seven attempts he faced in relief.
East Semifinal 1
No. 1 Kirkland Lake Gold Miners vs. No. 4 Powassan Voodoos
Voodoos win best-of-seven 4-2
Game 1: Powassan 6 Kirkland Lake 3
Game 2: Kirkland Lake 4 Powassan 2
Game 3: Powassan 6 Kirkland Lake 2
Game 4: Powassan 4 Kirkland Lake 3
Game 5: Kirkland Lake 5 Powassan 4 (OT)
Game 6: Powassan 6 Kirkland Lake 3
