Powassan sinks Kirkland Lake
Rebounding from an early two-goal deficit, the Powassan Voodoos roared back to defeat the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 7-3 Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
The hometown Gold Miners got off to a good start as they broke into the Voodoos’ end and saw Trent Nobes fire a shot from the left wing that was stopped by netminder Austin Seibel, but the rebound went off a hard-charging Evan Snyder and in, just over a minute into the contest.
Kirkland Lake then went up by a pair before the match-up was five minutes in as defenceman Jean-Felix Racine snapped a wrister from the point that hit off a Powassan defender and changed direction enough to elude Seibel, to collect his initial NOJHL tally.
Getting one back before the first intermission, a solid forecheck generated from Lucas Gunner pressured a turnover and a couple of in-close chances before he eventually shovelled one over Gold Miners’ goalkeeper Matis Bureau-Morel.
Moving to the middle stanza, the Voodoos drew level in transition that led to a two-on-one where a Caleb Dawson attempt pass across to a teammate was inadvertently batted back to him by a defender, which allowed him to swat the puck in for the equalizer.
The visitors then went in front on a man advantage when Justin Rousseau lunged for rebound at the top of the crease and guided it in at 17:09.
Not done there, Cayden Kowal made it 4-2 for the guests at 18:14 of the session by neatly tipping in a Rousseau attempt from the left side.
In the third, a fifth straight Powassan marker saw Rousseau redirect a Marcus Krats point attempt while Powassan was up a skater at 3:39.
Nathan Pelletier then finished off an odd-man rush with Kowal and he buried his chance with authority from the right side to make in 6-2.
After Nicolas Saucier got one back for Kirkland Lake by knocking in a chance from the top of the crease, Caden Dubreuil capped off the road result for the visitors with an empty netter to round out the scoring.
The win helps the Voodoos improve to 6-5-0-2 on the season, while in defeat, the Gold Miners fall to 1-13-0-2.
