Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – The Powassan Voodoos saw rookie defenceman Dylan Rousselle score twice, and add an assist, to help propel his side to 6-3 triumph over the Hearst Lumberjacks Saturday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Striking from a sharp angle in the corner, Powassan’s Heath Bradley fired a low shot to the target that eluded Hearst starter William Stonehouse, early into the contest, to give the guests the lead.
Pulling even at 13:51, the Lumberjacks’ Julien Trudel lobbed one to the target from the left point, that bounced off Voodoos’ goaltender Derrick Champagne, right to Cameron Menard, who promptly pumped in his NOJHL-best 41st tally of the campaign.
Still knotted into the middle frame, the visitors went back in front, via the power play, when Rousselle moved in between the circles, and after being set-up my Marcus Krats, roofed a backhand on Stonehouse.
More from Rousselle and Powassan midway through the matchup made it 3-1 as he took another pass from Krats, then made a nifty toe-drag before wiring one over the blocker of the Hearst netminder.
The Lumberjacks got one back at 14:01 when Mathieu Comeau spun deep in the visitors zone and fired a feed to the slot where a waiting Luc Warner cranked in a one-timer.
However, the Voodoos countered that on the next shift as Jax Pereira tipped a rising wrister from Rousselle.
While Jack Helkie entered in relief for Hearst to begin the third, he was greeted with Benjamin Coupal opting to shoot on a two-on-one that he ripped upstairs at 1:16.
After Cole Miller brought the hosts closer, Ryan Saginaw raced in and converted in the late going to secure the result for Powassan to round out the scoring.
With the win, the Voodoos improve to 31-13-1-2 and with a second-straight loss, the Lumberjacks fall to 33-10-0-3.
