Voodoos can't keep up with Lumberjacks in game one

A two-goal night from defenceman William Pâquet helped propel the Hearst Lumberjacks past the Powassan Voodoos 7-4 Friday in their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League quarter-final series opener at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.

After leading the Voodoos in tallies during the regular season, Cayden Kowal started off with the initial marker of the evening, three and a half minutes in.

On it, Powassan’s Caden Dubreuil generated a turnover in the Hearst zone, that led to Justin Rousseau taking a shot that was stopped by the pad of netminder Alexandre Boivin, but Kowal was right there to pump in the rebound.

The Lumberjacks came back to knot the affair at 11:35 of the first period as Pâquet picked off a puck then after cruising down the left wing, drove to the net and roofed a short-side attempt over the shoulder of goaltender Austin Seibel.

Trading goals once more before the intermission, Dubreuil but the visitors back on top by tipping in a left point chance by Mason Rotondo.

Countering again, Hearst’s Aiden Kalin finished off a feed from Henry Ouellet at 17:09.

Action in the second stanza saw the home side take the lead after Seibel could not contain a Brayden Hindman shot that leaked through and left Tyler Patterson with an open net to deposit his first of the playoffs.

Going up by a pair at 11:18, the Lumberjacks’ Bronson Babyak took a pass from Cole Miller and promptly blasted it through the legs of Seibel.

A giveaway in deep, three minutes into the third, found its way to the Voodoos’ Anthony Boyes along in front, who buried his chance upstairs to get the guests within one.

Countering in fairly quick order, Ty McKay put Hearst back up by two as he redirected in a point shot through traffic by Cole Miller.

Continuing to go back-and-forth, Kowal collected his second of the night midway through the session by finishing off a nice passing play with Dubreuil and Rousseau.

Matching that at 12:19, Pâquet connected once more after a face-off won by Chase Thompson where he sailed one through a maze from just inside the blueline that found its way into the back of the net.

Finishing it off in the late going with an unassisted effort into an empty set saw DonHeaven Veilleux round out the night’s scoring in sealing the result.

The teams are right back it Saturday in Hearst for Game 2 at 7 p.m.