NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Feb. 6, 2015
Sudbury pulls out OT triumph at Powassan
POWASSAN – A Ryan Mooney goal 3:21 into overtime was the decider as the Sudbury Nickel Barons pulled out an 8-7 decision Friday evening in a high-scoring Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair at the Powassan Sportsplex.
Joel Lemay tallied twice and set-up two others for Sudbury while the setback dampened a pair of impressive seven-point nights for Voodoos’ forwards Steve Harland and Kyle Moore.
It was all Nickel Barons in the first seven minutes of the contest as Sudbury struck three times to take control early.
August Jarecki began the offensive outburst for the visitors, scoring 62 seconds after the opening face-off.
Eric Champagne made it 2-0 at 2:55 while Ryan Theriault added to the Nickel Barons lead four minutes later, which resulted in the home side replacing starting goaltender Jack Ondrovic with Matt Young.
The netminding switch paid off for Powassan as they got things going offensively in the latter stages of the first as David Sherman connected twice in a 14-seond span to make it a 3-2 game after one period of play.
Voodoos rookie standout Harland drew assists on Sherman’s markers to extend a consecutive game point streak to an impressive 25 straight games.
Powassan tied it 40 seconds into the middle stanza as Harland fed Moore for his 18th goal of the season.
The goals kept coming in the frame as Danny Lepage put Sudbury back in front at 4:12 only to see Sherman score once again as he completed his hat trick two minutes later.
Harland gave the Voodoos their first lead of the evening at 16:45 of the second to make it a 5-4 game after two periods of play.
The offensive production continued in the third with Theriault tying it 37 seconds into the session only to see Harland put Powassan back in front two and a half minutes later.
After Moore made it 7-5 Voodoos, the Nickel Barons countered with a pair of Lemay markers to force OT.
It was there in extra time, with the teams skating four aside, that Mooney won it for Sudbury as he fired home his fifth goal of the season while potting his second game-winner of the season.
All four goaltenders that were dressed for the contest saw action in this one with Kevin Labelle picking up the win in relief of Jessie Morin as the duo combined to face 52 shots.
Young finished with 33 saves and suffered the OT setback after coming in early for Ondrovic, who allowed the three against on four attempts.
The result was the fourth straight time the two sides needed overtime to decide a winner with the Nickel Barons coming away victorious in each of them.
