The first two months of the season are almost already in the books and for the Powassan Voodoos they couldn’t have asked for a much better start. At 11-4-0-1 (through Monday, October 23rd) the Voodoos sit at the top of the East division with 23 points in 16 games. They have the second-best goal differential in the league at +31 and have scored 68 goals, the most in the East. Two of the new players on the roster this year have had a helping hand in that category: Darby McCarthy and Zach Turner, who are both American imports and were featured on a recent episode of the Frontline Podcast.
Turner grew up in Eagle, Colorado, but this isn’t his first time playing hockey in Canada as he suited up for the Pursuit of Excellence Academy in Kelowna, BC in 2018-19.
“Living in a small town, we didn’t have a great youth hockey organization to start with, so I almost switched to becoming a skier. What really started me off was that I went to a showcase where I got recruited to play in Canada in my age 15 season. Coming up to Canada the first-time playing in BC, it was an amazing experience. It was exactly what you could have hoped for your first time, moving away from home we were treated so well. It was a super professional organization.
He says he’s excited to be joining the Voodoos this season.
“I knew (Head Coach) Peter Goulet back when he coached at Trenton. Peter was trying to recruit me to play for them and I was super interested in going there at the time, but he got released from the team, and he ended up coming to Powassan and he wanted me to come here,” says Turner.
“I told him ‘I'm not sure yet. I don't know if that's what I want to do and I ended up staying in the States last year. Over the summer, I was talking to a friend of mine, Nick Liotino, who played in Powassan last year and spoke very highly of the program.”
It was also Goulet's track record of getting players recruited to play at the college and university levels that prompted Turner to want to come to Powassan. Last year alone, the Voodoos had more than a handful sign to NCAA schools or schools in Canada including Chase Strychaluk, Kannon Flageolle, Liam Serviss, and Conor O’Brien.
“He’s always done a good job coaching players and I was looking forward to a change after last year,” says Turner.
Turner then got a chance to introduce McCarthy to Goulet at the Chowder Cup in Boston (a big junior hockey tournament) over the summer.
“We talked for a while and Peter asked me to come up to the Voodoos camp in July, and I ended up signing after that camp.”
McCarthy grew up in Whitefish, Montana, a non-traditional hockey market. He played high school hockey in Montana before joining the Helena Bighorns of the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) last season. As the leading scorer on the team, Darby proved that everyone has a different path to success.
“My mom grew up playing hockey in Minneapolis and got me on skates when I was three. I just love hockey and just loved it since the first time I started. I had been playing in Whitefish pretty much my whole life till I graduated high school until last year when I went to Helena. It was only about three and a half hours away from my hometown, but I was excited to have that experience as a teenager and moving away from home.”
So far this season, McCarthy is on a point-per-game pace with six goals and 15 points through 15 games played, lining up with Turner who has two goals and 10 points – making up what the team has cleverly nicknamed “The American Line”
“At the beginning of the year we were playing with Ryan Patrick who is from Pittsburgh, and that was a true American line,” says Turner. “But the last few games we’ve been paired up with Tucker Shields, which has worked out well, but the name has stuck.”
The team has been named in the CJHL rankings a few times this year to go along with their success at the top of the standings.
“It feels nice being a part of a winning organization. It's a lot easier for yourself to be promoted and it just looks good on your resume as well just going for the future and it feels good to be a part of that. A winning culture is a good culture,” says Turner.
McCarthy says he’s settling and adjusting well to the league overall. “For me, it's just been more of a confidence thing. It was tough because we got scratched our first game here, the home opener and that was for outside reasons other than hockey, but once we played the first few games you start thinking, alright, this is how it's going to go. Then it's just getting in that mindset of, you know, I can produce, I can score. I can help my team that helps you out a lot, building your confidence and it helps you get rolling, getting points, and putting numbers up on the score board.”
General Manager Chris Dawson is excited to have both players on the team and sees a lot of potential in them.
“Coach Peter has had his eyes on Turner since his U18 days and he’s done a great job recruiting them both. The two complement each other as McCarthy brings speed and finesse while Turner brings grit and tenacity.”
He notes that McCarthy is the first Montana native to play for the Voodoos and that Turner's experience playing in Canada will be an asset to the team.
These two should become fan favourites of the Powassan Voodoos with what they bring to the ice this season. With their unique backgrounds and strong work ethic, they are sure to continue having an impact on the team all season long.
