Lumberjacks push Voodoos to the brink

The Hearst Lumberjacks saw Powassan area product Chase Thompson and Aiden Kalin both tally twice to help propel them to a 7-3 victory over the Powassan Voodoos Monday night in Game 3 of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League quarter-final at the Powassan Sportsplex.

With the outcome, Hearst now leads the best-of-seven series 3-0, putting Powassan on the brink of elimination heading into Game 4, which goes Tuesday back at the Sportsplex at 7 p.m.

It was the visiting Lumberjacks who clicked first in the contest with Thompson collecting a loose puck off a Jean-Pierre Audras point attempt and stuffing it in on Voodoos’ netminder Austin Seibel at 7:12.

Coming out hard to commence the second stanza, Hearst tacked on two more before the session was four minutes in.

A spinning Ty McKay put a pass on the stick of Tyler Patterson who quickly whipped it in at 1:08 before Thompson added another at 3:59 as he was left with a tap-in after teammate Bronson Babyak darted down the right wing and fired a feed through the crease that he finished off.

Getting one back, Cayden Kowal’s third of the series put Powassan on the board when he benefitted from a turnover at his own blueline, then raced in alone on a shorthanded breakaway and made a nifty move to his left before beating goaltender Alexandre Boivin.

Still on the power play however, the Lumberjacks got that back 24 seconds later thanks to Kalin, who was set-up by DonHeaven Veilleux down low, then ripped one by Seibel.

Converting while up a skater themselves, five and a half minutes into the third, Justin Rousseau got the home side closer by pumping in a one-timer from between the circles off a Kowal feed.

Special teams then brought the Voodoos back to with one as Kowal clicked on the power play with half a period to go when he snapped a shot through traffic from just inside the blueline, for his third point of the night.

Hearst got some insurance from Kalin though as he chopped in a rebound off the pad of the Powassan goalkeeper, for his second of the evening, with 6:10 to go.

Securing the road triumph a couple of shifts later, Veilleux collected a friendly bounce off the end boards and slammed it in during a man advantage.

Picking up one more on the tail-end of a extra-man opportunity, Brayden Hindman neatly steered in a pass sent in front by Veilleux to wrap things up.