Photos: voodooshockey.com
POWASSAN, Ont. – Getting two-tally nights from both Ryan Patrick and Mathieu MacMillan sent the Powassan Voodoos on their way to an 8-4 victory over the Espanola Paper Kings in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up Friday at the Powassan Sportsplex.
Espanola began the scoring by clicking on the power play at 11:46 of the first period when Lucas Signoretti came around the back of the net and put a feed over to Owen Fergusson, who snapped it by Powassan starter Miles Gordon.
The assist for Signoretti give him points in 10 straight outings while Fergusson has etched his name on the game sheet in five straight.
Answering late in the frame, the Voodoos tied it with seconds remaining in the session as Reyth Smith flew down the left wing and pumped a shot the Paper Kings’ Andrew Gaulton, that was stopped, but he quickly collected the rebound and slammed it into the open side.
Into the middle stanza, each team tallied once early on with Patrick connecting on the man advantage for the Voodoos at 1:46 as he put one blocker side from between the hash marks on Gaulton.
Countering a couple of shifts later, Blake Peters-Davey tied for the visitors after teammate Atley Gringorten forced a turnover in close, and saw him finish-off the point-blank chance.
Gringorten then made it 3-2 Espanola midway through the proceedings as he came out from behind the goal line and banked one in off of Gordon.
Continuing to trade goals, MacMillan evened it up once more at 11:39 as he picked off a pass in the neutral zone then wheeled into Paper Kings’ territory, made a nice toe drag on a defender and ripped a shot through Gaulton.
Building on that, Powassan pumped in two more to go up 5-3 after 40 minutes.
Their fourth came on an impressive individual effort courtesy of Cameron Lemcke, who drove hard to the net and while flying through the air, neatly stuffed the puck into the open corner.
Then, the Voodoos’ Chase Thompson scored less than a minute later as he chipped in a second chance off a MacMillan set-up.
Continuing to trade goals in the third, Espanola’s Grant Booth blasted in a Fergusson feed, only to see Powassan’s Zach Turner match that, while up a skater, as he eventually jammed in a loose puck laying in the crease.
Adding to their offensive onslaught, Patrick potted another off a two-on-one as he lifted one over the outstretched pad of Gaulton, with help from Dylan McElhinny.
MacMillan then finished off the eight-tally evening for his club by firing one upstairs while in alone in the final minute.
The victory lifts the Voodoos record to 15-8-0-2 on the year, with the loss dropping the Paper Kings to 16-8-0-0.
