Voodoos strike late to sink Rapids

A Nathan Pelletier shorthanded marker with just over two seconds remaining in regulation propelled the Powassan Voodoos to a dramatic 4-3 victory over the French River Rapids in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League exhibition affair Friday at Noelville Arena.

French River opened the scoring in the back-half of the first period off a nice dash up-ice by Sergy Suschenko who put a play towards the net, then chased down his own rebound and banked an attempt from the end boards off the skate of Powassan starter Carson Ruddy and across the goal line.

Coming back to tie it, the Voodoos drew level at 16:05 as Justin Rousseau jumped in and stuffed in a loose puck on Rapids’ netminder Carter Vicente.

Tied at one into the middle stanza, the Rapids won a draw and quickly converted with Joey Stiles ripping one home.

The visitors came back to tie once more as Aleksander Duguay went in alone on a breakaway and made a move to his right and jammed in his opportunity.

Powassan then went in front off a face-off win that allowed Ryan McCoy to snap a shot through a maze from the top of the left circle that found its way in.

Third period play saw French River tie it on a power play, with nine minutes remaining ,after Ralph Coulis took a feed from behind the net and ripped it by Nick Morvan, who entered the contest midway through.

On a late power play, the Rapids had a chance to win, but Pelletier played spoiler after a draw in the Powassan zone as he pushed a play ahead and after chipping a chance past a defender, raced in and slammed in the game-winner.

The two teams will complete a home-and-home Saturday in a 7 p.m. start at the Powassan Sportsplex.