NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Monday, Dec. 12, 2016
Voodoos win streak hits 21 with triumph over Gold Miners
POWASSAN, Ont. – The Powassan Voodoos got a pair of goals from Andy Baker to help them rally from an early deficit and go on to defeat the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 5-2 Monday evening for their 21st Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory in a row in a game held at the Powassan Sportsplex.
It was the visiting Gold Miners who set the tone quickly as they tallied twice in the game’s opening five minutes on markers by Alex Storjohann and Marshal Nikitin.
They then had a chance to up their lead after Ashton Amaya was awarded a penalty shot, only to be denied by the right pad of Voodoos starter Nate McDonald at 6:03.
The momentum turned from there as the power play allowed Powassan to get one of those back at 8:50 as Baker collected his league-leading 30th goal of the season.
Answering again, the Voodoos drew level at 14:48 on a Ryan Theriault effort as he finished off a feed from Tyson Gilmour, who extended a consecutive game point streak to 11 in the process.
The home side then took the lead with their second man advantage effort of the period as defenceman Dayton Murray notched his ninth on the campaign and eventual game-winner with 2:34 left in the stanza.
Action in the middle session saw Baker supply his second of the evening, and 31st overall, to put Powassan up by two at 12:15.
The No. 3 Canadian Junior Hockey League-ranked Voodoos then secured win No. 21 in succession in the third as Gary Mantz scored at 5:07 for his 24th tally in 2016-17 to round out the night’s scoring.
Ryan Bazzana chipped in with two assists to aid the offense cause for Powassan.
Nate McDonald turned aside 23 of the 25 attempts he faced to record the win for Powassan while Ridge Gerads was busy in the Kirkland Lake net seeing 41 shots fired his way in defeat.