Voodoos remain unbeaten with triumph over Crunch

POWASSAN, Ont. – The Powassan Voodoos stormed out to an early four-goal lead then held on from there to secure a 4-2 triumph over the visiting Cochrane Crunch Saturday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter at the Powassan Sportsplex.

It was all Voodoos in the opening 10 minutes of the contest as they rushed out to a 3-0 cushion and chased Cochrane starting goaltender Shayne Battler in the process.

Cade Herd, via the power play, started the home side off offensively at 5:41 before Dryden Rivet’s notched his first league marker less than a minute later with an even strength effort.

Powassan kept coming and added another at 8:23 with Matthew Hardwick making it 3-0 and saw the Crunch replace Battler in favour of back-up Justin Vertesi.

Up a skater later in the frame, the Voodoos tacked on one more with Herd collecting his second of the stanza to put his side up by four.

Cochrane did get on the board in the latter stages of the middle stanza thanks to Steven Cope, who picked up his initial NOJHL goal.

Baldino Aiello’s first as a member of the Crunch a couple minutes into the third brought the visitors closer, however Powassan shut the door from there as they finished off their fourth straight win to start the season.

Tomas Yachmenev doled out two assists to aid the Voodoos’ cause while giving him points in three consecutive outings.

Powassan goaltender Joe Vrbetic turned in a solid performance by stopping 41 of the 43 shots he faced to record the victory.

Battler suffered the setback after allowing the three against on seven attempts while Vertesi stopped 21 of 22 in lengthy relief.