POWASSAN, Ont. – It was a night of goals Saturday at the Powassan Sportsplex as the hometown Powassan Voodoos outlasted the Hearst Lumberjacks 10-7 in a high-scoring Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair.
With the result, the Voodoos clinched their second consecutive East Division title.
A wild first period saw the two sides combine for seven goals, including Powassan notching the first three early to grab a 3-0 lead before the contest was eight minutes old on a pair of markers from Ryan Theriault sandwiched around one from Quintin Loon-Stewardson.
Undaunted, Hearst countered quickly with tallies from Samuel Bourdages and Spencer Silver to move back within one.
Affiliate Ryan Mills picked up his first NOJHL goal for Powassan at 14:10 while Zack Dorval’s 10th during a late power play for the visitors finished off the combined offensive outburst in the frame.
Both clubs continued to click in the second stanza as the Lumberjacks picked up efforts from Alec Johnson and Max Johnson to put them up 5-4 with still half a game to play.
The lead was short lived however as Powassan came back with a trio of tallies from Aaron Dickson, Brett Hahkala and Harrison Israels in rapid succession to put them up 7-5.
Hearst wasn’t done however as they got one back at 18:17 as Max Griffioen’s collected his 19th of the campaign.
Moving on to the third, Rob McCollum made 8-6 at 5:49 only to see Dawson Waddell answer that just seven seconds later to make it a one-goal game once more.
However a pair of power play chances helped Powassan put the division-clinching win away thanks to Eric Mondoux and Tyson Gilmour.
Eric Allair had three assists for the Voodoos while Silver had a couple of helpers to give each of them three-point nights.
Julian Galloway made 39 saves to record the win for Powassan while Matt Kustra suffered the loss as the Voodoos fired 39 shots on the Hearst net.
