Cubs, Voodoos skate to 4-4 OT tie
Nolan Newton’s team-leading 32nd goal of the season, coming with less the three minutes remaining in regulation time, helped the Greater Sudbury Cubs comeback to earn a 4-4 overtime tie with the Powassan Voodoos Friday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at the Powassan Sportsplex.
The Voodoos opened the scoring 6:58 into the first period after breaking out of their own zone and saw Pavel Barclay finish off a give-and-go with Anthony Boyes as he swatted one in from the top of the crease, in beating Cubs’ starter Iain Wintle.
Adding another after handling a Greater Sudbury power play, Powassan’s Parker Bonsignore took a drop pass from Caleb Dawson, then off a double clutch, sent one through traffic that got by Wintle.
In the middle frame, the visitors got one back when Noah Kohan made a nice move down low and fed Eidan Macartney between the circles who promptly slid one along the ice between the legs of goalkeeper Derrick Champagne for his 15th on the campaign.
More from Kohan saw him convert while shorthanded as a Voodoos’ defender could not control a puck that allowed him to skate in on a two-on-one where he elected to shoot and wired one in from the right side.
Still on the power play though, Powassan went back in front as Ryan Saginaw set-up Caleb Dawson from behind the net and saw him swiftly bury his chance to reach the 20-goal plateau.
That sees Saginaw extend a point streak to eight.
Going up by a pair on an extended man advantage, Voodoos’ defenceman Braeden Begley made a nice move at the Cubs’ blueline as he side-stepped a Greater Sudbury player then moved into the slot where he ripped in a shot.
Matching that with another man-down marker right off the draw, Lucas Antonioni went in on the left wing and buried one top shelf on Champagne.
Pushing hard to tie it in the third period saw Owen King denied on a breakaway in the latter stages, but eventually saw Newton convert for the visitors with 2:48 to go as he stuffed in a backhand into the open side during a furious goal-mouth scramble as bodies battled in front to help send it to OT.
That also saw Newton run a point streak to 10.
In the additional session, Powassan generated some quality chances during a pair of man advantage opportunities, but some stellar stops by Wintle kept it level as the clubs each collected a point in the draw.
With the outcome, the Cubs’ record moves to 29-6-2-2 while the Voodoos went to 23-10-1-2.
