The Powassan Voodoos got a pair of goals, including the game-winner, and an assist from rookie defenceman Tye Lindeman to help power them to their 12th consecutive Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory Monday evening as they downed the Cochrane Crunch 6-1 at the Powassan Sportsplex.
Despite being down a man early, it was Powassan’s Tyler Gervais-Rolfe that excited the Sportsplex faithful as he struck shorthanded a minute and 50 seconds into the contest while picking up a point in his fourth straight outing.
The Voodoos then added to their lead at 16:08 of the frame on Lindeman’s first NOJHL goal.
Another quick effort to begin the middle session allowed the home side to go up by three just 35 seconds into the stanza as Tyson Gilmour collected his seventh marker of the campaign.
After Dylan D’Agostino made it 4-0 14 minutes into the session, Cochrane finally solved Powassan netminder Nicholas Campbell at 16:36 when Haiden Karnick scored for the fifth time in 2016-17.
However, Lindeman, a North Bay Battalion prospect, answered that a couple shifts later as he added another to his league tally total.
Ryan Bazzana rounded things out offensively for the Voodoos with less than four minutes to go.
Gilmour and Hahkala also each chipped in with three assists to aid the winners cause.
Campbell was called upon to make 37 stops in earning the decision in net for Powassan.
The Voodoos, missing six players and head coach Scott Wray at the Eastern Canada All-Star Challenge in Cornwall, played the game without leading scorers Gary Mantz and Andy Baker along with captain Eric Nagy, Dayton Murray, Parker Bowman and goalie Nate McDonald.
Voodoos assistant coaches Brent Tomlinson and Marc Gagnon shared the coaching duties in the victory.
The Voodoos called up North Bay Midget AAA Trappers Mason McMahon, Joe Whittet, Jake Gravelle and goaltender Drew Joyal to dress in place of the missing All-Stars.
Cochrane’s Leighton Williams started for the Crunch and suffered the loss allowing five on 28 attempts while affiliate Nicholas Dube played the third and gave up one on 14 shots in relief.
With the result the No. 8 CJHL-ranked Voodoos raised the NOJHL-best record to 19-3-1-0 while the Crunch slipped to 14-4-3-1 and now trail Powassan by eight points in the East Division and overall standings.
Team NOJHL falls to 0-2
Team NOJHL dropped its second straight 7-4 this time to CCHL Robinson on Monday afternoon. Voodoos forward Parker Bowman had two goals in the setback. The NOJHLers fell earlier in the day 4-2 at the hands of the Maritimes North All-Stars.
