A four-assist night from their captain, Aiden Pethick, saw the defenceman help guide his Espanola Paper Kings to a 7-2 triumph over the Powassan Voodoos Sunday evening in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League regular season finale, held at the Powassan Sportsplex.
With the Voodoos set to play the Hearst Lumberjacks in the NOJHL quarterfinals next Friday, and the Paper Kings eliminated from playoff contention, the Voodoos sat out seven regulars and filled the rest of the roster with affiliate players including U18 AAA Trappers Cameron Lockhart, Noah Kozmick and Tyler Brunet.
Breaking out of his own zone with pace, Jack Anderson put the Paper Kings in front early as he raced up ice and while moving to the slot, sent a sizzler high over the glove of Voodoos’ netminder Austin Seibel, before the match-up was a minute old.
Going up by a pair, while on a power play, Espanola’s Kaden Wicklander started by winning a face-off, then finishing it by pumping in a rebound off an Aidan Rufa point shot.
Getting Powassan on the board at 16:38 of the first period, Eric Whitelaw went to the net and banged in a loose puck off a Dawson Coleman shot from up top that Paper Kings’ starter Jackie Helkie could not quite control.
Matching that before the first intermission, Graydon Guthrie finished off the remnants of a Pethick attempt from up high by burying one from the top of the crease to give him points in five straight.
In the second stanza, the home side got back to within one early after Anthony Boyes picked off an errant Espanola pass, then spun and drove down between the circles and snapped in his 10th goal of the season.
Converting on a late two-man advantage, the Paper Kings moved a play around before Atley Gringorten jammed one in off a goal-mouth scramble.
Heading to the third, Espanola extended their edge when affiliate forward Chase MacKay chopped in a rebound after a Wicklander shot to score in his NOJHL debut.
Less than a minute later, Wicklander shovelled a feed ahead that sent Jason Galante in alone on a breakaway that was completed with a sharp wrister into the right-hand corner, to rack-up his 15th tally on the year, that came during a power play.
In the late going, veteran goaltender Connor Hatfield came in for the final couple of minutes for the Paper Kings to close things out.