Powassan rallies past Greater Sudbury
Rebounding from a two-goal, third-period deficit, the Powassan Voodoos stormed back with four unanswered tallies to upend the Greater Sudbury Cubs 4-2 Thursday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
With Greater Sudbury carrying a significant edge in attempts to the target in the opening frame, they eventually solved Powassan starter
Cole Vreugdenhil 14 and a half minutes into the contest.
On the marker, Cubs’ defenceman Tyson Richmond glided along the Voodoos’ blueline than snapped a shot towards the net that was neatly deflected in by Noah Kohan parked in front.
That proved to be the lone offensive effort of the period as the clubs went to their respective dressing rooms for the first intermission.
In the second stanza, it was the visitors turn to press the pace as they had multiple chances to draw level, but could not solve Greater Sudbury goaltender Matthew Vahramian.
Then in the final minute of the frame, the home side got a late goal off the stick of Lucas Antonioni as he scooped up a loose puck at the top of the crease, off of some nice work by teammate Spencer Horgan, and lifted in his second of the season at 19:24.
Moving to the third period, Powassan’s power play helped them get one nearly seven minutes in thanks to Justin Rousseau, who spun between the circles and whipped one past Vahramian.
Building on that, the Voodoos tied it 19 seconds later when Ryan Saginaw buried a one-handed pass across from Cayden Kowal to knot the affair at 2-2.
With the assist, Kowal now has points in eight straight regular season contests, dating back to the 2024-25 campaign.
The guests then took the lead at 11:38, moments after handling a man advantage opportunity for the home side, as Anthony Boyes teed up Rousseau in the left circle where he pumped in his second of the night.
Getting their goalkeeper out for an extra attacker in the latter stages of regulation in an effort to knot the score and send it to overtime, the hosts pushed for an equalizer.
However, Vreugdenhil did his part to stymie a couple of Cubs’ in-close chances, before Saginaw iced it with a long-range empty netter just prior to time expiring.
The victory sees Powassan improve to 3-0-0-0 early in the season, while two-time defending NOJHL champion Greater Sudbury fell to 1-2-0-0.
