Voodoos win 5th straight with triumph over Wildcats

POWASSAN, Ont. – The surging Powassan Voodoos got goals from six different skaters to propel them to their fifth consecutive Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory, by holding on for a 6-4 decision Friday over a persistent Elliot Lake Wildcats side at the Powassan Sportsplex.

Fresh off a pair of wins earlier in the week at the highly-successful NOJHL Showcase in Sudbury, the Voodoos picked up where they left off by securing the night’s opening tally two minutes into the contest on a Quintin Loon-Stewardson effort as the rookie forward ran a consecutive game point streak to five in the process.

Down a man later in the frame, Powassan picked up a shorthanded marker at 14:50 to go up 2-0 thanks to Eric Mondoux.

Heading into the middle stanza Elliot Lake got one back at 4:18 off of David Elford’s fifth goal of the season only to see the Voodoos answer right back 59 seconds later when Aaron Dickson beat Wildcats’ starter Parker Simpson to restore the home side’s two-tally cushion.

It was more Powassan in the late going of that second session as they tacked on two more to go up by four as Tyler Gilberds and Ryan Theriault both scored in the final two minutes of the frame.

Shane Beaulieu’s assist on the Theriault goal saw him extend a point streak to eight.

Moving on to the third, Elliot Lake cut into the deficit about nine minutes in as Jacob Kelly secured his eighth overall to bring the visitors closer.

Powassan’s Dayton Murray buried his league co-best 11th of 2017-18 with five minutes left to add some insurance for the Voodoos.

Not ready to pack it in, the Wildcats picked up one on a Clark Allair power play one-timer with under four minutes left to keep it interesting and added one more of the stick of Nick Long, but the Voodoos regrouped from there and held on for the victory.

Tomas Yachmenev and Rob McCollum had two assists each for Powassan as did Elliot Lake’s Brett Crook.

Christian Cicigoi made 25 stops to record the decision for the Voodoos while Simpson saw 44 attempts in a losing cause for the Wildcats.